C6e  ILtbrarg 

of  tl)C 

(Hnitoersiitp  of  jQortb  Carolina 


The  Sylvester  Hassell  Collection 

FROM   THE   LIBRARY  OF 

Sylvester  Hassell,  D.  D. 

CLASS     OF       62 

GIVEN    BY    HIS   CHILDREN 


UNIVERSITY  OF 
NORTH  CAROLINA 

School  of    Library 
Science 


UNIVERSITY  OF  N.C.  AT  CHAPEL  HILL 


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Digitized  by  the  Internet  Archive 

in  2012  with  funding  from 

University  of  North  Carolina  at  Chapel  Hill 


http://www.archive.org/details/childsbookofnatu01hook 


THE 


CHILD'S  BOOK  OF  IATURE 


FOR  THE  USE  OF  FAMILIES  AND  SCHOOLS. 


INTENDED  TO  AID  MOTHERS  AND  TEACHERS  IN  TRAINING  CHILDREN  IN  THE 
OBSERVATION    OF   NATURE. 


IN    THREE    PARTS. 

PAET    I.— PLANTS. 


BY  WORTHINGTON  HOOKER,   M.D., 

AUTHOR   OP    "PHYSICIAN   AND   PATIENT,"    "  HUMAN   PHYSIOLOGY,"  &C. 


XUustrateTr  fc»  Enflrabfnfls. 


NEW    YORK: 

HARPER  &  BROTHERS,  PUBLISHERS, 

PRANK  LIN     SQUARE. 

1872. 


By  Br.  Worthington  Hooker. 


The  Child's  Book  Of  filature.  For  the  Use  of  Families  and  Schools ;  intended  to  aid  Moth, 
ers  and  Teachers  in  training  Children  in  the  Observation  of  Nature.  In  three  Parts.  Illus- 
trated by  Engraving*.  The  Three  Parts  complete  in  one  vol.  Small  4to,  Cloth,  $2  00  ;  Separately, 
Cloth,  90  cents  each. 

Past  I.  PLANTS. 

Taet  II.  ANIMALS. 

Paet  in.  AIR,  WATER,  HEAT,  LIGHT,  &c. 

t'irst  Book  ill  Chemistry.     For  the  Use  of  Schools  and  Families.    Illustrated  by  Engrav- 
ings.   Square  4to,  Cloth,  90 .cents. 
• 

Natural  History.  For  the  Use  of  Schools  and  Families.  Illustrated  by  nearly  200  Engrav- 
ings.    12mo,  Cloth,  $1  50. 

Science  for  the  School  and  Family. 

Part  I.  NATURAL  PHILOSOPHY.     Illustrated  by  nearly  300  Engravings.     12mo, 
Cloth,  $1  50. 

Paet  II.  CHEMISTRY.    Illustrated  by  numerous  Engravings.    12mo,  Cloth,  $1  50. 

Paet  in.  MINERALOGY  AND  GEOLOGY.     Illustrated  by  numerous  Engravings. 
12mo,  Cloth,  $1  50. 

Published  by  HARPER  8c  BROTHERS,  Franklin  Square,  N.  "2*. 


E2T*  Any  of  the  above  Works  sent  to  any  part  of  the  United  States,  postage  pre-paid,  upon  receipt 

of  the  Price. 


Entered,  according  to  Act  of  Congress,  in  the  year  one  thousand  eight  hundred  and  fifty -seven,  by 
Harper  &  Brothers,  in  the  Clerk's  Office  of  the  District  Court  of  the  Southern  District  Court  of 
New  York. 


PREFACE. 


Childeen  are  "busy  observers  of  natural  objects,  and  have  many 
questions  to  ask  about  them.  But  their  inquisitive  observation 
is  commonly  repressed,  instead  of  being  encouraged  and  guided. 
The  chief  reason  for  this  unnatural  course  is,  that  parents  and 
teachers  are  not  in  possession  of  the  information  which  is  needed 
for  the  guidance  of  children  in  the  observation  of  nature.  They 
have  not  themselves  been  taught  aright,  and  therefore  are  not  able 
to  teach  others.  In  their  own  education  the  observation  of  nature 
has  been  almost  entirely  excluded ;  and  they  are,  therefore,  unpre- 
pared to  teach  a  child  in  regard  to  the  simplest  natural  phenomena. 

Here  is  a  radical  error  in  education.  When  we  put  a  child  into 
the  school-room,  to  be  drilled  in  spelling,  reading,  arithmetic,  ge- 
ography, etc.,  we  effectually  shut  him  in  from  all  the  varied  and 
interesting  objects  of  nature,  which  he  is  so  naturally  inclined  to 
observe  and  study.  These  are  very  seldom  made  the  subjects  of 
instruction  in  childhood.  And  even  at  the  fireside  the  deficiency 
is  nearly  as  great  as  it  is  in  the  school-room. 

A  similar  defect  appears  to  a  great  extent  through  the  whole 
course  of  education.     The  study  of  the  wonderful  phenomena 


Vlil  PREFACE. 

wliicli  are  all  around  us  and  within  us,  is,  for  the  most  part,  neg. 
lected,  except  "by  the  few  whose  inclinations  to  it  are  so  strong 
that  they  can  not  he  repressed.  This  defect  is  well  illustrated  in 
a  remark  which  was  made  by  a  mother  in  relation  to  her  own  ed- 
ucation. When  at  school  she  stood  at  the  head  of  her  class, 
and  excelled  particularly  in  mathematics.  Her  remark  was,  that 
she  every  day  regretted  that  much  of  the  time  she  had  given  to 
the  study  of  mathematics  had  not  been  spent  in  learning  what 
would  enable  her  to  answer  the  continual  questions  of  her 
children.  Even  when  the  natural  sciences  are  taught,  the  mode 
of  teaching  them  is  generally  ineffectual.  The  knowledge 
which  the  mass  of  pupils  in  our  higher  schools  gain  of  Natu- 
ral Philosophy,  Chemistry,  Botany,  and  Physiology,  is  very  de- 
ficient. 

There  should  be  a  thorough  change  in  this  respect  in  the  whole 
course  of  education,  beginning  in  childhood.  The  natural  sci- 
ences should  be  made  prominent  among  the  studies  even  of  young 
children,  who,  in  other  words,  should  be  encouraged  and  guided 
in  that  observation  of  nature  to  which  they  are  generally  so  much 
inclined.  In  the  different  departments  of  natural  science  there 
are  multitudes  of  facts  or  phenomena  in  which  children  readily 
become  interested,  when  they  are  properly  explained. 

In  this  little  book  my  object  is  to  supply  the  mother  and  the 
teacher  with  the  means  of  introducing  the  child  into  one  depart- 
ment of  natural  science — that  which  relates  to  the  vegetable  world> 


PREFACE.  IX 

or  vegetable  physiology.  With  this  view,  I  have  endeavored  to 
select  those  points  only  which  the  child  will  fully  understand, 
|  and  in  which  he  will  be  interested.  But  this  selection  has  by  no 
means  shut  me  up  within  narrow  limits.  I  have  been  surprised 
at  the  amount  of  knowledge  in  this  interesting  study  that  can  be 
satisfactorily  communicated  to  the  mind  of  a  child.  While  the 
fundamental  points  in  vegetable  physiology  are  quite  fully  devel- 
oped in  this  book,  I  have  avoided  as  far  as  possible  all  technical 
terms.  These  can  be  learned  when  the  pupil  becomes  old  enough 
to  profit  by  learning  them.  The  facts,  the  phenomena,  are  what 
the  child  wants  to  understand ;  and  these  can  be  communicated  in 
the  simplest  language,  so  that  a  child  of  about  sjpten  or  eight,  or 
perhaps  even  six  years,  can  readily  be  made  to  comprehend  them. 

I  begin  with  the  most  simple  and  obvious  facts — those  which 
relate  to  flowers — and  go  on  through  fruits,  seeds,  leaves,  roots, 
etc.,  step  by  step,  until,  at  the  latter  part  of  the  book,  the  circu- 
lation of  the  sap,  and  other  points  at  first  view  complicated,  are 
made  perfectly  intelligible.  '  By  this  gradual  unfolding  of  the  sub- 
ject, many  points  are  made  clear  to  the  child,  which  are  not  fully 
understood  by  many  of  those  who  in  riper  years  have  studied 
botany ;  for  in  the  common  mode  of  teaching  this  science  the 
mere  technicalities  of  it  are  made  prominent,  while  the  interesting 
facts  which  vegetable  physiology  presents  to  us  in  such  variety 
receive  but  little  attention. 

The  best  time  to  use  this  book  in  teaching  is  during  the  sum- 


X  PREFACE. 

mer,  because  then  every  thing  can  be  illustrated  by  specimens 
from  the  field  and  the  garden,  and  the  teacher  can  amplify  upon 
what  I  have  given.  For  example,  when  the  lesson  is  to  be  on 
leaves,  the  teacher  can  request  her  scholars  to  bring  as  many  dif- 
ferent kinds  of  leaves  as  they  can  find ;  and  she  can  point  out 
their  differences  after  the  same  plan  that  I  have  adopted,  but  in  a 
much  more  extended  manner.  Indeed,  if  the  teacher  catch  her- 
self the  true  spirit  of  observation,  she  will  be  continually  led  in 
her  teachings  to  add  facts  of  her  own  gathering  to  those  which  1 
have  presented. 

I  believe  that  there  are  few  terms  in  the  book  that  can  not  be 
readily  unders4^d  by  the  child.  A  little  explanation  may  some- 
times be  necessary  on  the  part  of  the  teacher,  especially  when  the 
same  word  is  used  as  meaning  more  at  one  time  than  at  another. 
For  example,  the  word  plant  is  used  sometimes,  as  in  the  title  of 
this  book,  to  include  every  thing  that  is  vegetable ;  while  at  an- 
other time  it  is  used  to  distinguish  certain  forms  of  vegetables 
from  others,  as  in  the  expression  plants  and  trees. 

I  have  made  such  a  division  into  chapters  as  will  place  each 
subject  by  itself,  and  at  the  same  time,  for  the  most  part,  give 
lessons  of  a  proper  length  for  the  learner.  I  have  placed  ques- 
tions at  the  end  of  each  chapter,  for  convenience  in  instruction. 
Of  course  the  teacher  or  parent  will  vary  them  as  she  sees  fit,  to 
accommodate  the  capacities  of  those  whom  she  teaches. 

WORTHINGTON    HOOKER. 


CONTENTS. 


CHAPTER  PAGE 

I.  OUR  LOVE  FOR  FLOWERS 13 

II.  MORE  ABOUT  OUR  LOVE  FOR  FLOWERS 19 

III.  HOW  FLOWERS  ARE  MADE 22 

IV.  THE  COLORS  OF  FLOWERS 25 

V.  THE  PERFUME  OF  FLOWERS 28 

VI.  THE  SHAPES  OF  FLOWERS 31 

VII.  HABITS  OF  FLOWERS 37 

VIII.  MORE  ABOUT  THE  HABITS  OF  FLOWERS 40 

IX.  WHAT  LIVE  OK  FLOWERS 43 

X.  MORE  ABOUT  WHAT  LIVE  ON  FLOWERS 4G 

XI.  WHAT  THE  BIBLE  SAYS  ABOUT  FLOWERS .  49 

XII.  FRUITS 52 

XIII.  MORE   ABOUT   FRUITS 55 

XIV.  WHAT   SEEDS   ARE   FOR 58 

XV.    LIFE    IN   THE    SEED 62 

XVI.    HOW   SEEDS   ARE    SCATTERED G4 

XVII.    LEAVES 67 

XVIII.    MORE    ABOUT   LEAVES 71 

XIX.    THE    SAP    IN    LEAVES 76 

XX.    THE    USES    OF    LEAVES 80 

XXI.    LEAVES    IN   THE    AUTUMN 83 

XXII.    LEAF-BUDS 86 

XXIII.    THE    COVERINGS    OF    THE   BUDS 99 


Xll  CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER  PAGE 

XXIV.    WHAT   ROOTS   ARE   FOR 92 

XXV.    MORE    ABOUT   ROOTS 95 

XXVI.    STALKS   AND   TRUNKS 100 

XXVII.   THE   BARK   OF   TREES   AMD    SHRUBS 103 

XXVIII.    THE    WOOD    IN   TREES    AND    SHRUBS ,  105 

XXIX.    WHAT   IS   MADE    FROM    SAP 107 

XXX.    MORE    ABOUT   WHAT    IS    MADE    FROM    SAP 110 

XXXI.    CIRCULATION   OF   THE    SAP 113 

XXXII.    THE    SLEEP   AND   THE    DEATH   OF   PLANTS 11G 

XXXIII.    CONCLUSION 118 


THE 

CHILD'S    BOOK   OF   NATURE.  • 
PART   L-PLANTS. 
CHAPTER  I. 

OUR   LOVE    FOR   FLOWERS. 

Flowers  in  the  garden.  The  garden  of  Eden. 

TiWERY  body  likes  flowers.  We  like  them  wherever  we  see 
-^  them.  How  pleasant  they  are  to  our  eyes  as  we  see  them  in 
the  garden !  How  their  various  colors  please  us  as  we  look  along 
the  borders  I  Some  arc  red,  some  are  white,  some  are  blue,  and 
some  are  yellow.  All  these  different  colors,  mingled  with  the  fresh 
green  leaves,  make  a  feast  for  our  eyes. 

And  then  we  love  to  look  at  each  flower  by  itself.  Some 
flowers  we  like  better  than  we  do  others.  A  pretty  little  flower 
that  smells  sweet,  we  like  better  than  we  do  a  large  one  that  has 
no  perfume.  The  peony  is  very  beautiful,  but  we  do  not  love  it 
as  we  do  the  little  pink  with  its  delightful  fragrance. 

It  was  a  garden  in  which  Adam  and  Eve  were  placed.  While 
they  were  innocent  and  pure  God  surrounded  them  with  beautiful 
things,  because  he  loved  them  so  much.  Before  they  sinned  they 
lived  among  the  flowers  and  trees  of  the  garden  of  Eden.  It  was 
more  beautiful  than  any  garden  that  has  been  seen  since  that  time. 


14  OUR  LOVE   FOR   FLOWERS. 

Flowers  in  the  fields.  The  early  flowers  of  spring. 

It  was  so  beautiful  that  God  would  not  let  Adam  and  Eve  stay  in 
it  after  they  had  sinned. 

As  we  roam  about  the  fields  and  the  woods,  it  is  pleasant  to 
see  here  and  there  a  flower.  We  should  hardly  enjoy  our  walk 
if  we  did  not  see  them.  They  are  like  familiar  friends  that  we 
love  to  meet.  We  see  them  come  every  year  after  the  winter  is 
gone,  and  we  like  to  hid  them  welcome.  A  little  girl,  finding  a 
wild  violet  early  in  the  spring,  exclaimed,  "  How  glad  I  am  to  see 
you  again !  It  is  a  long  time  since  I  have  seen  you,  and  you 
look  as  pretty  as  ever ! "  The  delight  expressed  by#this  little  girl 
is  felt  by  every  body  that  loves  flowers,  as  they  come  one  after 
another  in  the  spring.  How  much  we  should  miss  them  if  they 
did  not  come  every  year ! 

The  earliest  flowers  that  we  see  in  the  spring  are  the  most 
precious  to  us.  They  are  very  welcome,  coming  so  soon  after  the 
cold  winter  is  gone.  They  are  the  first  children  of  spring.  They 
arc  few.  We  find  them  only  here  and  there.  But  we  know  that 
there  will  be  many  more  flowers  as  the  warm  summer  comes  on ; 
and  we  rejoice  to  greet  the  first  of  the  host  of  beautiful  things 
that  are  to  delight  our  eyes  in  the  field  and  in  the  garden. 

These  early  flowers  that  we  love  so  much  are  very  little  flowers. 
Look  at  the  sweet  little  flowers  of  the  trailing  arbutus  as  they 
peep  out  from  among  its  rough  leaves.  It  seems  as  if  they 
scarcely  dared  to  show  themselves,  for  fear  that  old  winter  had 
hardly  gone.  The  violets  too,  are  small,  and  just  lift  their  heads 
from  the  ground.  So,  too,  the  delicate  anemones,  that  are  moved 
by  the  least  breath  of  air,  are  very  small. 


OUR   LOVE   FOR   FLOWERS. 


Keeping  flowers  in  the  winter.  The  little  girl's  frozen  flower.  The  prisoner. 

We  are  so  fond  of  flowers  that  we  like  to  have  them  where  we 
can  look  at  them  in  the  winter.  We  are  not  willing  to  wait  till 
spring  comes.  So  we  keep  them  in  our  warm  rooms  on  stands 
at  the  windows.  Those  who  can  afford  it  sometimes  have  green- 
houses,  in  order  that  they  may  keep  a  great  variety  of  plants,  and 
have  flowers  all  the  time. 

People  sometimes  become  very  much  attached  to  a  few  plants 
that  they  keep  in  their  "windows.  Their  opening  flowers  seem  to 
smile  upon  them,  and  this  is  very  pleasant  to  them  in  the  midst 
of  the  dreariness  of  winter.  It  makes  a  little  summer  for  them 
in-doors.  And  if  the  plants  happen  to  get  frozen  some  very  cold 
night,  it  makes  them  feel  really  quite  sad.  A  little  girl  became 
very  much  attached  to  a  plant  given  to  her  by  her  mother.  She 
watered  it  every  day,  and  watched  the  buds  on  it  as  they  opened 
into  flowers.  It  was  one  of  her  pets.  But  one  night  it  froze, 
and  the  little  girl  wept  over  her  loss.  She  felt  as  if  she  had  lost 
a  sweet  and  ever-smiling  friend.  A  kind  neighbor  gave  her 
another  plant  of  the  same  kind ;  but  it  was  a  long  time  before 
she  could  feel  that  it  was  just  as  good  as  the  one  that  she  had 
lost. 

There  is  a  beautiful  story  in  French  of  a  prisoner  who  became 
exceedingly  attached  to  a  flower.  He  was  put  in  prison  by  Napo- 
leon because  he  was  supposed  to  be  an  enemy  of  the  government. 
One  day  as  Charney  (for  that  was  his  name)  was  walking  in  the 
yard  adjoining  his  cell,  he  saw  a  plant  pushing  up  from  between 
the  stones.  How  it  came  there  he  could  not  tell.  Perhaps  some 
one  carelessly  dropped  the  seed.     Or  perhaps  the  seed  was  blown 


16  OUR   LOVE   FOR  FLOWERS. 

The  flower  in  the  prison.  How  Charney  watched  and  guarded  it. 

over  the  wall  by  the  wind.  lie  knew  not  what  plant  it  was,  "but 
he  felt  a  great  interest  in  it.  Shut  in  within  those  walls  away 
from  all  his  friends,  not  permitted  io  interest  himself  with  eithei 
reading  or  writing,  he  was  glad  to  have  this  little  living  thing  to 
watch  over  and  love.  Every  day  when  he  walked  in  the  court 
he  spent  much  time  in  looking  at  it.  He  soon  saw  some  buds. 
He  watched  them  as  they  grew  larger  an£  larger,  and  longed  to 
see  them  open.  And  when  the  flowers  at  length  came  out  he 
was  filled  with  joy.  They  were  very  beautiful.  They  had  three 
colors  in  them — white,  purple,  and  rose  color;  and  there  was  a 
delicate  silvery  fringe  all  round  the  edge.  Their  fragrance,  too, 
was  delicious.  Charney  examined  them  more  than  he  ever  did 
flowers  before ;  and  never  did  flowers  look  so  beautiful  to  him  as 
these. 

Charney  guarded  his  plant  with  great  care  from  all  harm.  He 
made  a  frame-work  out  of  such  things  as  he  could  get,  so  that  it 
should  not  be  broken  down  by  some  careless  foot  or  by  the  wind. 
One  day  there  was  a  hail-storm  ;  and  to  keep  his  tender  plant 
from  the  pelting  of  the  hail,  he  stood  bending  over  it  as  long  as 
the  storm  lasted. 

The  plant  was  something  more  than  a  pleasure  and  a  comfort 
to  the  prisoner.  It  taught  him  some  things  that  he  had  never 
learned  before,  though  he  was  a  very  vase  man.  When  he  went 
into  the  prison  he  was  an  infidel.  He  did  not  believe  there  was 
a  God;  and  among  his  scribblings  on  the  prison  wall  he  had 
written,  "All  things  come  by  chance."  But  as  he  watched  his 
loved  flower,  its  opening  beauties  told  him  that  there  is  a  God. 


OUR    LOVE    FOR   FLOWERS.  17 

How  the  prisoner  was  set  free.  The  Empress  Josephine's  love  of  flowers. 

He  felt  that  none  but  God  could  make  that  flower.  And  he  said 
that  the  flower  had  taught  him  more  than  he  had  ever  learned 
from  the  wise  men  of  the  earth. 

The  cherished  and  guarded  plant  proved  of  great  service  to  the 
prisoner.  It  was  the  means  of  his  being  set  free.  I  will  tell  you 
how  this  was.  There  was  another  prisoner,  an  Italian,  whose 
daughter  came  to  visit  him.  She  was  much  interested  by  the 
tender  care  which  Charney  took  of  his  plant.  At  one  time  it 
seemed  as  if  it  were  going  to  die,  and  Charney  felt  very  sad.  He 
wished  that  he  could  take  up  the  stones  around  it,  but  he  could 
not  without  permission.  The  Italian  girl  managed  to  see  the 
Empress  Josephine,  and  to  tell  her  about  it ;  and  permission  was 
given  to  Charney  to  do  with  his  plant  as  he  desired.  The  stones 
were  taken  up,  and  the  earth  was  loosened,  and  the  flower  was 
soon  as  bright  as  ever  again. 

Now  Josephine  thought  much  of  flowers.  It  is  said  that  she 
admired  the  purple  of  her  cactuses  more  than  the  Imperial  purple 
of  her  robe,  and  that  the  perfume  of  her  magnolias  was  pleas- 
anter  to  her  than  the  flattery  of  her  attendants.  She,  too,  had 
a  cherished  flower — the  sweet  jasmine,  that  she  had  brought  from 
the  home  of  her  youth,  a  far-off  island  of  the  West  Indies.  This 
had  been  planted  and  reared  by  her  own  hand ;  and  though  its 
simple  beauty  would  scarcely  have  excited  the  attention  of  a 
stranger,  it  was  dearer  to  her  than  all  the  rare  and  brilliant  flow- 
ers that  filled  her  hot-houses.  She  thought  a  good  deal,  there-^ 
fore,  of  the  prisoner  that  took  such  care  of  his  one  flower.  She 
inquired  about  him,  and  after  a  little  time  persuaded  the  Emperor 

B 


OUR   LOVE   FOR   FLOWERS. 


Charney  takes  his  plant  home.  Nothing  comes  by  chance. 

to  give  him  his  freedom.  And  when  Charney  left  the  prison  he 
took  the  plant  with  him  to  his  home ;  for  he  could  not  "bear  to 
part  with  this  sweet  companion  that  had  cheered  him  in  his  lonely 
prison  life,  taught  him  such  lessons  of  wisdom,  and  was  at  last 
the  means  of  setting  him  free. 

Some,  perhaps,  would  say  that  the  seed  of  this  flower  got  into 
that  prison-yard,  and  took  root  in  the  earth  between  the  stones 
by  chance,  and  that  this  was  all  very  lucky  for  the  prisoner.  But 
this  is  not  so.  Nothing  comes  by  chance.  God  sent  that  seed 
there,  and  made  it  lodge  in  the  right  place  to  have  it  grow.  He 
sent  it  to  do  great  things  for  the  poor  prisoner.  Little  did  Char- 
ney think,  when  he  saw  that  tiny  plant  first  pushing  up  from  be- 
tween the  stones,  that  by  it  God  would  free  him  from  prison,  and, 
what  was  better,  deliver  him  from  his  infidelity. 

Questions. — What  is  said  of  our  love  for  flowers  ?  Do  we  like  some  flowers  better 
than  others  ?  What  is  said  of  the  garden  of  Eden  ?  How  do  we  feel  about  the 
wild  flowers  of  spring?  Why  do  we  like  the  earliest  best?  Are  these  large  or 
small?  Mention  some  of  them.  Wiry  do  people  keep  flowers  in  the  winter  in 
their  rooms  and  in  green-houses  ?  Tell  about  the  little  girl  and  her  plant.  What 
is  the  story  of  the  French  prisoner  and  his  plant  ? 


MORE  ABOUT  OUR  LOVIS  FOR  FLOWERS.  19 

Bouquets.  Flowers  in  the  sick  chamber.  Flowers  as  ornaments. 


CHAPTEE  II. 

MORE  ABOUT  OUR  LOVE  FOR  FLOWERS. 

It  is  from  our  love  of  flowers  that  a  bouquet  is  always  a  pretty 
present  to  a  friend.  The  kind  teacher  is  much  gratified  when  a 
scholar,  with  a  bright,  cheerful  "  Good  morning,"  gives  to  her  a 
bouquet.  Though  the  flowers  may  be  simple  and  common,  the 
present  is  a  very  pleasant  one.  It  is  saying  to  your  teacher,  I  love 
the  beautiful  things  that  God  has  made,  and  I  know  that  you  do 
too.  It  is  saying  more  than  this.  It  is  telling  your  teacher  that 
you  love  her.  It  is  because  you  love  her  that  you  give  to  her 
the  sweet  flowers  that  you  love  so  much.  And  she  will  feel  that 
though  the  flowers  will  fade,  your  love  to  her  will  ever  be  fresh. 

How  grateful  are  flowers  in  the  chamber  of  sickness  !  It  would 
weary  the  sick  one  to  see  all  her  kind  friends.  But  they  can 
send  her  presents  to  let  her  know  that  they  think  of  her.  And 
what  tokens  of  remembrance  are  more  welcome  than  flowers  ? 

Flowers  are  much  used  as  ornaments,  even  among  savages. 
They  are  more  beautiful  than  any  ornaments  that  man  can  make. 
What  is  more  elegant  than  handsome  hair  dressed  with  flowers  ? 

As  natural  flowers  droop  so  easily,  we  make  artificial  ones  for 
ornaments.  Sometimes  they  are  made  so  well  that  they  look 
like  fresh  flowers  just  picked  from  the  garden. 

We  like  flowers  so  much  that  we  copy  them  in  the  figures  in 
dress  and  furniture.     Gems  and  ornaments  of  gold  and  silver  are 


20  MORE  ABOUT  OUR  LOVE  FOR  FLOWERS. 

Flowers  in  dress  and  furniture.  Why  God  has  given  us  beautiful  things. 

arranged  in  flower-shapes.  Figures  of  flowers  are  seen  in  I  he  pat- 
terns on  dresses  more  often  than  any  other  figures.  The  calico- 
printer  gets  his  prettiest  figures  from  the  flowers  that  he  sees  in 
the  field  and  garden.  The  richest  carpets  are  those  in  which  the 
figures  are  flowers.  We  often  see  in  the  carpet  under  our  feet  a 
great  variety  of  flowers  of  the  most  "beautiful  colors.  We  seem 
to  tread  on  "beds  crowded  full  of  roses  and  various  kinds  of  flow- 
ers ;  and  we  have  no  fear  of  crushing  them  as  when  we  tread  on 
real  flowers.  Flowers,  too,  are  stamped  on  the  papers  on  our 
walls.  Even  in  our  table-cloths  and  napkins  you  often  see  rep- 
resentations of  flowers  woven  in.  You  see  the  figures  of  flowers 
worked  "beautifully  on  articles  of  silver.  You  see  them  too  on 
vases  in  which  we  put  real  flowers.  Flowers  are  often  carved 
in  furniture,  and  even  the  stove-maker  has  them  on  his  stoves, 
whether  they  are  made  for  the  parlor  or  the  kitchen.  Thus  it  is 
that  we  have  flowers  about  us  whenever  we  can.  And  where  we 
can  not  have  flowers,  we  have  representations  of  them. 

I  said  in  the  first  chapter  that  every  body  likes  flowers.  Per- 
haps I  ought  to  say  that  almost  every  body  likes  them.  A  man 
may  be  so  wicked  and  so  like  a  brute  that  he  can  see  no  beauty 
in  flowers.  A  man  may  love  to  hoard  up  money  so  much,  that 
he  will  not  care  about  any  thing  beautiful.  Some  men  can  not 
see  any  use  in  flowers.  They  think  that  potatoes,  and  turnips, 
and  beets,  ought  to  grow  where  their  daughters  have  their  flower- 
garden.  They  forget  that  God  has  given  us  beautiful  things 
on  purpose  to  have  us  enjoy  looking  at  them.  God  has  a  use  for 
every  thing  that  he  has  made,  and  this  is  the  use  of  flowers.     And 


MORE  ABOUT  OUE  LOVE  FOR  FLOWERS.  21 

Love  of  children  for  flowers.  Flowers  in  the  school-room. 

he  likes  to  see  us  love  the  beautiful  things  that  he  has  given  us, 
and  make  a  proper  use  of  them. 

Children  always  love  flowers.  The  baby  puts  out  its  little 
hand^  to  them  before  it  can  hold  any  thing,  and  shows  that  it  is 
pleased  by  its  smiles  and  funny  noises.  And  the  child  that  can 
run  about  and  talk,  is  delighted  as  it  runs  up  and  down  the  gar- 
den, and  says  "Pretty,  pretty!"  to  every  flower. 

There  ought  always  to  be  flowers  in  the  school-room.  The 
place  where  the  happy  child  goes  to  learn  should  be  made  very 
cheerful.  Pleasant  things  will  make  it  so,  and  flowers  are  cer- 
tainly very  pleasant  things.  And  then,  they  are  very  easily  ob- 
tained. Scholars  can  bring  them,  and  they  can  be  put  into  vases 
where  all  can  see  them.  Pictures  would  make  a  school-room  look 
very  pleasant,  but  they  are  too  costly.  Flowers  are  cheap,  since 
they  commonly  cost  only  the  trouble  of  gathering  and  bringing 
them  to  school. 

Questions. — What  is  said  about  giving  a  bouquet  to  your  teacher  ?  Why  are  pres- 
sents  of  flowers  so  pleasant  to  a  sick  person?  What  is  said  of  flowers  as  orna- 
ments ?  What  of  artificial  flowers  ?  Tell  how  we  copy  flowers  in  dress  and  in 
furniture.  Are  there  some  who  do  not  like  flowers?  For  what  did  God  make 
flowers?  How  do  very  little  children  show  that  they  like  them?  What  is  said 
about  having  flowers  in  the  school-room  ? 


22  HOW    FLOWERS   AEE   MADE. 


What  is  growing  1  Kosc-buds. 


CHAPTER  III. 

HOW   FLOWERS   ARE    MADE. 

If  you  love  flowers  you  will  like  to  know  all  that  you  can 
about  them.  It  is  just  as  it  is  when  you  love  a  person.  You 
want  to  know  all  that  you  can  about  the  friends  that  you  love  so 
well.  And  if  you  love  flowers,  you  will  like  to  know  what  I 
have  to  tell  you  about  them. 

You  go  out  into  the  garden,  and  you  see  among  all  the  flow- 
ers there  a  large  red  rose.  Look  at  it,  and  see  how  many  red 
leaves  it  has  all  folded  together.  How  did  that  rose  come  there  ? 
That  is  plain  enough,  you  will  say — it  grew  there.  And  most 
grown  people  as  well  as  children  think  that  this  is  all  that  is  to 
be  said  about  it.  But  what  is  groioing  ?  Do  you  know  how  a 
rose  grows  ?  I  will  tell  you  something  about  this. 
That  rose  was  once  a  very  little  bud, 
such  as  you  see  here.  Then  it  did  not 
look  any  thing  like  a  rose.  It  was  a  little 
green  thing  with  nothing  red  in  it.  You 
would  not  suppose  that  it  ever  could  turn 
into  a  rose,  if  you  had  not  seen  buds  turn 
into  roses  before. 

The  little  rose-bud  becomes  larger  and 
larger  every  day.  Soon  it  begins  to  open,  as  is  rep- 
resented here,  and  you  see  the  red  leaves  of  the  flower 


HOW   FLOWERS   ARE   MADE.  23 

Roses  are  made  out  of  sap.  How  the  sap  comes  to  the. bud. 

all  folded  together.     It  spreads  out  these  leaves  after  a  little  time, 
and  now  you  see  the  full-blown  rose. 

Here  is  a  representation  of  a  rose  in  full 
bloom.  How  much  larger  it  is  than  the 
little  bud  from  which  it  came,  and  how 
different  it  is  from  it !  A  great  many 
leaves  it  spreads  out  in  its  bosom.  Some- 
times the  difference  is  greater  than  what 
you  see  here.  Some  kinds  of  roses  are 
very  large  indeed,  but  their  buds  at  the 
first  are  very  small. 

This  rose  was  made.  We  commonly 
say  that  it  grew,  without  thinking  what  growing  is.  It  was  made 
out  of  something.  There  was  something  that  came  to  the  bud  to 
make  it  into  a  rose.  What  was  it  that  came  to  the  bud  ?  How 
did  it  come  there  ?     I  will  tell  you. 

The  rose  was  made  out  of  a  juice,  or  sap,  as  we  call  it.  This 
sap  kept  coming  to  the  bud  all  the  time  that  it  was  growing 
larger,  and  then  all  the  time  that  it  was  changing  into  a  rose. 
We  do  not  know  how  this  sap  can  be  made  into  such  a  beautiful 
red  flower.  This  we  can  not  understand.  The  wisest  man  in 
the  world  can  not  tell  us  how  it  is  done.  But  God,  who  made 
all  the  flowers  and  every  thing  else,  understands  it. 

But  you  will  ask  how  the  sap  comes  to  the  bud.  You  see  that 
slender  stem  that  holds  the  rose.  There  are  little  fine  pipes  in 
that  stem,  and  the  sap  comes  through  these  pipes.  All  the  time 
that  the  bud  is  turning  into  a  rose,  the  sap  comes  to  it  through 


24  HOW   FLOWERS   ARE   MADE. 

Sap-pipes  and  water-pipes.  Rose-buds  are  rose-factories. 

these  pipes  in  the  stem,  just  as  water  comes  through  pipes  to  our 
houses.  These  pipes  in  the  stem  are  very  small,  and  there  are  a 
great  many  of  them.  They  are  so  small  that  you  can  not  see 
them,  but  they  are  large  enough  to  let  the  sap  run  along  through 
them. 

If  the  sap  should  stop  coming  through  these  pipes  to  the  bud, 
it  could  not  become  a  rose.  If  you  pick  a  bud,  you  know  that  it 
stops  growing,  and  never  becomes  a  rose.  This  is  because  no 
more  sap  can  come  to  it  through  the  pipes  of  the  stem.  It  is  just 
as  no  water  can  come  into  a  house  if  the  water-pipe  be  cut  off 
outside. 

The  sap  from  which  the  rose  is  made  we  should  suppose  would 
be  like  the  rose.  But  it  is  not.  It  is  not  red,  as  you  see  by 
breaking  the  stem.  It  does  not  taste  at  all  like  the  leaves  of  the 
rose. 

It  does  not  seem  very  wonderful  that  the  little  green  bud  should 
be  made  out  of  the  sap  in  the  stem.  But  it  does  seem  very 
strange  that  the  bright-red  leaves  of  the  rose  should  be  made  out 
of  it.  Suppose  some  one  should  take  some  stems,  and  bruise 
them,  so  as  to  get  the  sap  out  of  them.  Could  he  make  a  rose 
from  this  sap  ?  Oh  no.  This  can  be  done  only  in  the  bud. 
That  is  the  rose-factory.  The  sap  must  go  there  to  be  made  into 
a  rose. 

Questions. — Why  do  you  want  to  know  about  flowers  ?  Do  most  people  think  it 
plain  how  a  rose-bud  becomes  a  rose  ?  How  is  the  rose  different  from  the  bud  ?  Is 
the  rose  made?  What  is  it  made  out  of?  How  does  the  sap  get  to  the  bud?  If 
you  pick  a  bud,  why  does  it  not  become  a  rose  ?  Is  the  sap  in  the  stem  like  the 
rose  ?     Can  any  one  make  a  rose  out  of  the  sap  ? 


THE    COLORS    OF   FLOWERS.  25 


How  flowers  are  dyed.  The  colors  made  from  the  sap. 


CHAPTER  IV. 

THE    COLORS    OF   FLOWERS. 

I  have  told  you  about  red  roses.  But  all  roses,  you  know,  are 
not  red.  There  are  white  and  yellow  roses.  And  some  roses  are 
a  very  light  red,  while  others  are  a  dark  red.  Now,  how  are  all 
these  different  colors  made? 

If  you  ask  a  dyer  how*  he  gives  cloths  different  colors,  he  will 
tell  you  that  he  dips  them  into  different  dyes.  He  has  a  dye  in 
one  place  that  gives  a  red  color,  and  one  in  another  place  that 
gives  a  yellow  color;  and  so  for  all  the  different  colors.  The 
roses  are  not  colored  in  this  way ;  they  are  not  dipped  into  dyes. 
But  the  colors  must  come  from  something.  From  what  do  you 
think  they  come  ? 

We  do  not  know  exactly  how  these  colors  are  made.  The  sap 
seems  to  be  the  same  in  the  stems  of  all  the  different  roses.  It 
is  not  yellow  in  the  stem  of  the  yellow  rose,  and  red  in  the  stem 
of  the  red  rose.  The  stems  of  all  the  roses  are  green,  and  the 
buds  at  first  are  green.  But  in  some  way  all  the  different  colors 
are  made  out  of  something.  And  as  there  is  nothing  there  but 
the  sap  that  comes  in  the  stems,  the  colors  must  be  made  from 
this.  Air  and  light  have  something  to  do  with  making  the  colors, 
but  they  are  made  out  of  the  sap. 

I  have  told  you  only  about  roses.  But  there  are  many,  very 
many  other  flowers  with  every  variety  of  color.      They  are  all 


26  THE    COLORS   OF   FLOWERS. 


Mixing  and  shading  off  of  colors  in  flowers. 


made  out  of  the  sap  that  comes  to  the  buds  through  the  stems. 
This  is  true  of  the  flowers  on  the  trees  as  well  as  of  those  that 
you  see  on  stalks  and  bushes. 

The  sap  is  different  in  the  different  trees  and  plants.  But  in 
none  of  them  can  you  find  sap  that  is  like  the  flowers  that  are 
made  out  of  it. 

In  some  flowers  you  see  different  colors  beautifully  mixed  to- 
gether. These  different  colors  are  made  out  of  the  same  sap.  In 
the  garden-violet  you  see  a  purple  and  a  yellow  color.  In  the 
iris  you  see  a  purple,  a  yellow,  and  a  fclue.  These  three  colors 
are  very  unlike,  and  yet  they  are  made  from  the  same  sap  that 
comes  up  the  stem.  In  the  China  pinks  you  see  a  great  variety 
of  colors  alongside  of  each  other. 

Sometimes  the  colors  shade  off  into  each  other  beautifully. 
You  see  this  in  the  pink.  Sometimes  one  color  is  put  right  on 
to  another  in  streaks  or  in  spots.  You  see  stripes  of  color  in  tu- 
lips. In  the  tiger  lily  there  are  dark  spots  of  a  very  different 
color  from  that  reddish-brown  upon  which  they  are  put. 

How  it  is  that  out  of  the  same  sap  one  color  is  made  in  one 
part  of  a  flower,  and  another  color  in  another  part,  we  do  not 
know.  Sometimes  two  entirely  different  colors  are  side  by  side. 
In  one  kind  of  poppy  the  leaves  of  the  flower  are  white  except  on 
the  very  end,  and  there  they  are  red.  They  look  as  if  all  their 
edges  had  been  dipped  in  a  red  dye.  Now  how  it  is  that  the  sap 
should  make  the  flower  white  every  where  except  on  the  tips  of 
its  leaves,  and  there  make  it  red,  we  do  not  know. 

Neither  can  we  tell  how  one  color  is  made  to  shade  off  or 


THE   COLOES   OF   FLO  WEES.  27 

Change  of  color  in  some  flowers. 

run  into  another  color.  This  is  often  so  nicely  done,  that  you 
can  not  tell  where  one  color  begins  and  another  ends.  You  see 
this  in  the  apple-blossom.  The  reddish  color  runs  off  into  a  pure 
white,  but  there  is  no  place  where  you  can  say  the  white  begins. 

The  colors  of  flowers  change  some  as  they  open.  A  flower  is 
not  exactly  of  the  same  color  when  it  is  partly  opened  as  it  is 
when  its  leaves  are  all  spread  out  to  the  light.  There  is  a  vine 
called  the  cobea  that  has  a  singular  change  in  the  color  of  its 
flowers.  When  they  first  open  they  are  a  pale  green.  They  are 
of  this  color  when  they  are  fully  opened.  But  after  a  while  they 
have  a  rich  purple  color.  It  is  like  the  change  of  color  that  you 
see  in  some  fruits.  An  orange,  you  know,  is  at  first  green ;  but 
when  it  is  ripe,  it  is  a  bright  yellow  orange. 

I  might  go  on  to  tell  you  much  more  about  the  colors  of  flow- 
ers. But  you  can  look  for  yourselves  in  the  garden  and  in  the 
field,  and  see  how  differently  the  colors  are  arranged  in  one  flower 
and  in  another. 

Questions. — Arc  roses  of  different  colors  ?  How  does  a  dyer  give  different  colors 
to  cloth  ?  Do  we  know  how  the  colors  of  flowers  are  made  ?  "What  are  they  made 
from  ?  What  is  said  of  the  great  variety  of  colors  in  flowers  ?  Mention  some  flow- 
ers in  which  different  colors  are  alongside  of  each  other.  Is  it  strange  that  they 
are  made  out  of  the  same  sap  ?  What  is  said  of  one  kind  of  poppy  ?  What  is  said 
of  the  shading  off  of  colors  ?     Tell  about  the  flower  of  the  cobea. 


28  THE    PERFUME   OF   FLOWERS. 

Some  flowers  perfume-factories.  Some  have  no  fragrance. 


CHAPTER  V. 

THE   PERFUME    OF   FLOWERS. 

There  is  another  thing  in  the  flower  besides  the  color  that  is 
made  from  the  sap.  It  is  its  perfume.  How  delightful  this  is  in 
the  rose !  And  how  long  it  lasts !  But  you  can  smell  none  of 
it  in  the  sap  out  of  which  the  rose  is  made.  There  is  commonly 
very  little  odor  in  the  stem  through  which  the  sap  comes  to  a 
flower,  and  it  is  not  at  all  like  that  which  you  smell  in  the  flower 
itself. 

The  perfume  is  not  in  the  stem ;  but  that  from  which  the  per- 
fume is  made  is  there.  Something  is  done  to  the  sap  as  it  comes 
to  the  flower  to  make  it  give  out  the  perfume.  Every  fragrant 
flower  is  a  perfume-factory. 

Some  flowers  have  no  odor,  while  others  smell  very  strong. 
The  lilac  and  the  syringa,  you  know,  have  a  strong  smell.  They 
are  quite  pleasant  in  the  open  air ;  but  when  they  are  in  a  closed 
room  they  are  disagreeable,  because  their  odor  is  so  strong. 

There  is  no  fragrance  in  many  of  our  most  beautiful  flowers. 
This  is  true  of  the  cactus  in  all  its  varieties.  When  you  look  at 
a  large  cactus  blossom,  so  splendid  in  its  colors,  it  seems  to  you 
that  it  must  smell  sweet.  But  if  you  put  it  to  your  nose,  as  a 
child  is  apt  to  do,  you  find  that  it  has  no  smell.  Then  there  are 
the  elegant  japonicas,  of  various  colors,  that  have  no  fragrance. 
The  showy  red  peonies  in  the  garden  look  to  a  child  so  much  like 


THE    PERFUME    OF    FLOWERS.  2D 

Some  both  beautiful  and  fragrant.  Variety  in  the  fragrance  of  flowers. 

large  red  roses,  that  it  seems  to  him  as  if  they  ought  to  have  a 
pleasant  smell.  But  they  have  none.  Perhaps  you  have  seen  in. 
the  autumn  some  very  bright  scarlet  flowers  standing  on  a  stalk 
in  damp  places.  It  is  the  cardinal  flower.  Some  call  it  eye- 
bright.  This  elegant  flower  has  no  fragrance.  And  there  is  none 
in  the  fringed  gentian,  another  beautiful  wild  flower  of  autumn. 
It  seems  enough  for  such  flowers  that  they  are  so  beautiful. 

But  there  are  some  flowers  that  have  both  great  beauty  and  de- 
licious fragrance.  This  is  true  of  most  kinds  of  roses.  When- 
ever any  one  gives  you  a  rose,  you  put  it  up  to  your  nose  at 
once.  You  expect  that  it  will  smell  sweet,  of  course ;  and  you  feel 
disappointed  if  it  does  not.  The  cape  jessamine  is  one  of  the 
most  beautiful  of  flowers,  and,  at  the  same  time,  it  has  a  delightful 
fragrance.  The  pure  clear  white  flower  appears  very  beautiful 
among  the  glossy  green  leaves.  In  a  southern  climate  it  is  one 
of  the  most  splendid  of  flowers. 

Most  flowers  have  some  odor.  And  the  odors  of  the  different 
flowers  are  all  different  from  each  other.  If  you  were  blindfolded, 
and  a  pink,  a  rose,  an  apple  blossom,  a  pond  lily,  an  orange  blos- 
som, and  a  clover-head,  were  put  up  to  your  nose,  one  after  the 
other,  you  would  know  each  of  them  by  its  smell.  And  so  of 
other  flowers.  What  a  variety  there  is  in  the  fragrance  that  the 
flowers  in  the  garden  and  the  field  send  forth  into  the  air !  What 
a  multitude  of  different  perfume-factories  has  our  kind  heavenly 
Father  provided  just  to  gratify  us  ! 

Sometimes  a  great  many  of  these  factories  of  one  kind  are  to- 
gether, and  then  the  air  is  filled  with  the  perfume  they  make. 


30  THE    PERFUME    OF   FLOWERS. 

Clover-field.  Grape-vine.  Unpleasant  odor  of  some  plants. 

You  will  at  once  think  of  a  clover-field.  How  sweet  the  fra- 
grance as  the  wind  blows  over  the  field  and  "brings  it  to  you ! 
All  this  perfume  comes  from  millions  of  little  factories.  For 
each  clover-head  is  a  perfume-factory,  as  you  may  know  if  you 
pick  one  and  smell  it. 

The  fragrance  from  the  flowers  of  the  grape-vine  is  very  deli- 
cious. It  is  of  this  that  Solomon  speaks  when  he  says,  "  The 
vines  with  the  tender  grape  give  a  good  smell.  "#  When  the  grape- 
vines are  in  bloom  the  air  is  filled  with  their  fragrance ;  and  yet 
the  flowers  are  so  small,  and  so  near  the  color  of  the  stem  and  the 
leaves,  that  you  would  not  notice  them,  unless  you  looked  partic- 
ularly for  them. 

There  are  some  flowers  that  have  an  unpleasant  odor.  Some- 
times this  is  because  they  are  poisonous,  the  odor  making  us  avoid 
them,  and  thus  saving  us  from  danger.  But  in  many  cases  we 
can  not  see  any  such  reason  for  the  unpleasant  odor.  Why  it  is 
that  such  a  splendid  flower  as  the  crown  imperial  should  smell  so 
disagreeably  we  do  not  understand.  One  thing,  however,  is  true : 
the  bad-smelling  plants  are  few,  while  God  has  given  us  a  multi- 
tude of  those  that  smell  sweet. 

Questions. — What  else  in  the  flower,  besides  color,  is  made  from  the  sap  ?  Is  the 
perfume  in  the  stem  ?  Where  is  it  made  ?  Mention  some  flowers  that  have  a  strong 
smell.  Mention  some  that  are  very  handsome,  and  yet  have  no  fragrance.  Men- 
tion some  that  have  both  fragrance  and  beauty.  What  is  said  about  the  different 
odors  of  flowers  ?  How  does  this  show  the  goodness  of  God  to  us  ?  Tell  about  the 
clover-field.  What  is  said  of  the  flowers  of  the  grape-vine  ?  What  is  said  of  flowers 
with  a  bad  odor? 


THE    SHAPES    OF   FLOWERS. 


31 


Flowers  shaped  like  stars. 


Butterfly-shaped  flowers. 


CHAPTER  VI. 


THE    SHAPES    OF    FLOWERS. 


Flowers  are  of  all  kinds  of  shapes.  The  shape  of  the  flower 
often  gives  it  its  name.  Some  are  shaped  like  stars,  and  are 
called  asters,  the  word  in  Latin  for  stars.  There  are  many  kinds 
of  these  asters  that  grow  wild  in  the  autumn.  Some  of  them  are, 
blue,  some  purple,  and  some  white.  And  then  there  are  the  China- 
asters  that  you  see  in  the  garden. 

There  is  a  beautiful  wild  flower  called,  from  its  shape,  ladies' 
tresses.  And  so,  too,  we  have  ladies'  ear-drops,  and  the  lady's 
slipper. 

Some  flowers  are  shaped  like  butterflies.  This 
is  the  shape  of  the  pea-blossom  which  you  see 
here.  A  very  beautiful  flower  it  is,  though  peo- 
ple seldom  think  much  about  it.  They  think 
only  of  the  peas  which  they  are  to  gather  by- 
and-by.  There  is  one  curious  thing  about  the 
color  of  the  pea-blossom.  Sometimes,  you  know, 
it  is  white,  and  sometimes  it  is  a  purplish  red. 
Now  when  it  is  red,  you  can  see  red  spots  all  the  way  down  the 
stalk,  at  the  joints  where  the  branches  go  off  from  it.  It  is  as  if 
the  sap  as  it  went  up  to  color  the  blossom,  left  some  of  its  red  dye 
in  these  spots  on  the  way.  You  see  no  such  spots  on  the  stalk 
when  the  flowers  are  white. 


32 


THE    SHAPES    OF    FLOWERS. 


Cup-shaped. 


Funnel-shaped. 


Here  are  the  flowers  of  the  lily  of  the  valley. 
They  are  like  little  bells  hanging  from  the 
stem.  This  is  one  of  the  sweetest  of  all 
flowers.  The  little  Llue-bells,  so  pretty,  and 
yet  so  troublesome  in  the  garden,  have  their 
name  from  their  bell-shape.  So  also  have  the 
Canterbury  bells. 

Some  flowers  are  cup-shaped.  This  shape 
gives  its  name  to  the  bright  yellow  buttercup 
"  that  you  know  so  well.  The  cup-daffodil,  as 
we  call  it,  has  the  middle  part  of  the  flower  in 
the  shape  of  a  cup.  The  cup  part  of  it 
is  quite  deep.  The  flower  is  bent  over. 
If  it  stood  upright,  its  cup  would  be 
filled  with  water  when  it  rains.  The 
narcissus,  too,  which  bends  over  like  the 
cup-daffodil,  has  a  little 
cup,  as  you  see  in  the  fig- 
ure, in  the  middle  of  it. 
Its  cup,  you  observe,  is 
shallow.  It  is  something 
like  a  bowl. 

Here  is   a  flower  of  a  funnel  or  tunnel  shape. 
We  see  this  shape  in  the  flowers  of  the  cypress- 
vine,  and  of  the  tobacco-plant.     The  flower  of  the 
morning-glory,  which  you  will  see  on  page  41,  has 
this  shape  quite  perfectly.      It  looks  Axry  much  like  a  tunnel. 


%f 


THE    SHAPES    OF   FLOWEES. 


33 


Calceolaria. 


Wake-robbin. 


Calla. 


Trumpet-creeper. 


The  flower  that  you  see  here  is  one  of  the 
varieties  of  calceolaria.  It  hangs  down  like  a 
bag,  or  pocket,  having  a  round  opening  above. 
The  blossom  of  which  this  is  a  drawing  was 
of  a  bright  yellow  color  with  red  spots  on  it. 
There  are  many  varieties  of  this  singular  flower, 
having  different  colors,  and  different  sizes. 

The  flower  here  represented  is  »the  wake- 
robbin,  or  Indian  turnip.  It  is  found  in  rather 
damp  and  shady  places.  What  you  see  is  commonly  called  the 
flower,  but  it  is  not  really  so.  It 
is  a  covering  for  the  flowers  of  the 
plant,  which  are  very  small.  They 
are  on  the  lower  part  of  that  round- 
ed stalk  that  stands  up  in  the  mid- 
dle. This  splendid  covering  or 
house  for  the  little  flowers  is  green 
in  one  variety,  and  of  a  dark  pur- 
ple in  the  other.  In  the  beautiful 
calla  the  flowers  are  small,  and  are 
on  a  stalk  like  that  in  the  wake- 
robbin.  That  pure  white  trumpet- 
shaped  thing  that  we  so  much  ad- 
mire is  not  really  the  flower,  though  it  is  called  so. 

Some  flowers  are  shaped  like  a  trumpet.  This  is  the  shape  of 
the  blossom  of  the  trumpet-creeper.  The  blossom,  you  know,  is 
very  deep.     The  humming-bird  is  fond  of  going  quite  into  it.     I 

i  c 


34  THE    SHAPES    OF    FLOWERS. 

Catching  humming-birds.  Compound  flowers. 

suppose  lie  goes  in  after  the  honey  in  the  bottom  of  the  flower. 
I  have  sometimes  caught  this  beautiful  bird  by  grasping  the  blos- 
som in  my  hand  when  he  had  fairly  got  into  it.  I  only  kept  the 
trembling  little  creature  long  enough  to  let  us  see  how  beautiful 
he  was,  and  how  curiously  his  long  bill  was  made,  with  its  slender 
tongue,  to  gather  the  honey.  I  soon  set  him  free,  and  he  was  off 
again  as  joyous  and  as  busy  as  ever,  going  from  flower  to  flower. 

The  blossom  of  the  snap-dragon  has  a  queer  shape  that  gives 
it  its  name.  By  pressing  it  together  sideways,  you  can  make  it 
open  like  a  mouth,  and  there  are  little  white  things  that  look  like 
teeth.     And  then,  if  you  let  go  of  it,  this  mouth  snaps  together. 

You  have  often  seen  the  golden  rod  by  the  road-side  in  the  last 
of  summer  and  in  autumn.  Its  golden  yellow  blossoms  grow  on  a 
tall  stalk  in  such  a  way  that  its  name  seems  a  very  proper  one. 
It  is  truly  a  rod  of  golden  flowers. 

There  are  some  flowers  that  are  called  compound.  They  are 
called  so  because  each  flower  is  made  up  of  a  great  many  flowers. 
The  dandelion  is  a  flower  of  this  kind.  Each  blossom  has  a  great 
number  of  flowers  in  it.  These  you  can  easily  pick  apart.  Each 
one  of  these  looks  beautifully  if  you  see  it  through  a  microscope. 

The  blossom  of  the  clover  is  one  of  the  same  kind  of  flowers. 
The  white  daisy,  too,  or  ox-eyed  daisy,  as  some  call  it,  that  you 
see  scattered  over  fields  among  the  grass,  is  a  compound  flower. 
I  have  counted  in  one  of  these  blossoms  over  six  hundred  flowers. 

These  flowers  are  in  the  yellow  part  in  the  middle,  that  has  a 
row  of  white  leaves  all  around  it.  They  are  very  small.  But 
when  you  look  at  them  through  a  microscope,  you  can  see  that 


THE    SHAPES   OF  FLOWERS.  35 

Ox-eyed  daisy.  Mountain  daisy. 

each  one  is  a  beautiful,  perfect  flower.  So,  then,  there  is  a 
whole  garden  of  flowers  in  one  of  these  blossoms.  If  these  six 
hundred  flowers  could  be  taken  out  and  turned  into  large  flowers, 
they  would  make  very  much  such  a  show  as  six  hundred  yellow 
lilies  would. 

The  mountain  daisy,  here  represented,  is  a 
pretty  little  flower  of  the  same  kind.  It  has  in 
its  golden  yellow  bosom  a  multitude  of  little 
flowers  close  together,  just  as  our  common  white 
daisy  has.  And  around  this  yellow  part  there  is 
a  row  of  delicate  leaves,  sometimes  reddish,  and 
sometimes  white.  This  is  a  favorite  flower  in 
England  and  Scotland,  where  it  is  very  common  in  the  fields. 
There  has  been  a  great  deal  of  poetry  written  about  it.  Burns, 
the  great  poet  of  Scotland,  has  some  sweet  verses  to  this  "wee, 
modest,  crimson-tipped  flower,"  as  he  calls  it.  Here  are  some 
lines  that  some  one,  I  know  not  who,  has  written  about  it. 

"I'm  a  pretty  little  thing, 
Always  coming  with  the  spring ; 
In  the  meadows  green  I'm  found, 
Peeping  just  above  the  ground, 
And  my  stalk  is  covered  flat 
With  a  white  and  yellow  hat. 

"  Little  maiden,  when  you  pass 
Lightly  o'er  the  tender  grass, 
Step  aside,  and  do  not  tread 
On  my  meek  and  lowly  head, 
For  I  always  seem  to  say, 
Chilly  winter's  gone  away." 


36 


THE    SHAPES    OF   FLOWERS. 


Tassels  of  the  willow,  alder,  etc. 


Why  flowers  have  6uch  variety  of  shapes. 


Very  pretty  poetry  this  is,  but  I  think  the  poet  is  wrong  in 
making  this  modest  little  flower  praise  itself. 

The  flowers  on  many  trees  hang  down,  as 
represented  in  this  figure,  in  tassels.  The 
flowers  of  the  willow  hang  in  this  way.  There 
are  a  great  many  flowers  in  each  tassel.  In 
the  figure,  in  one  of  the  tassels  the  flowers  are 
fully  open,  and  in  the  other  they  are  not. 
Sometimes  they  are  very  delicate.  They  are 
in  the  black  alder.  It  is  curious  to  see  how 
differently  they  look  when  the  flowers  are  open 
and  when  they  are  not.  When  they  are  open, 
they  look  beautiful,  as  seen  through  a  micro- 
scope. When  the  chestnut-trees  are  in  blossom,  their  tassels, 
hanging  in  clusters,  give  them  a  very  rich  appearance. 

You  have  seen  in  this  chapter  that  the  variety  of  shapes  in 
flowers  is  very  great.  There  is  almost  no  end  to  them.  Now 
the  Creator  makes  all  this  variety  of  form  for  the  same  reason  that 
he  gives  to  flowers  such  a  variety  of  colors.  It  is  to  feast  our 
eyas  and  make  us  happy. 

Questions. — Mention  some  of  the  shapes  of  flowers  spoken  of  in  the  first  of  the 
chapter.  Tell  ahout  the  pea-blossom.  Mention  some  flowers  that  are  shaped  like 
bells.  Mention  some  that  are  cup-shaped.  Mention  some  that  are  shaped  like  a 
tunnel.  Tell  about  the  calceolaria.  Tell  about  the  Indian  turnip  and  the  calla. 
What  is  said  of  the  trumpet-creeper?  Of  the  snap-dragon?  Of  the  golden  rod? 
What  are  compound  flowers  ?  Mention  some  of  them.  Tell  about  the  white  daisy. 
Also  the  mountain  daisy.  Mention  some  trees  that  have  their  flowers  in  tassels. 
Tell  about  these  tassels.     Why  has  God  given  such  variety  of  shape  to  flowers  ? 


HABITS   OF   FLOWEES.  37 

Flowers  turning  to  the  light.  The  bumble-beG  in  the  tulip. 


CHAPTER  VII. 

HABITS    OF   FLOWEES. 

Flo  wees  have  habits,  or  ways  of  acting,  just  as  people  do.  I 
will  tell  you  about  some  of  them. 

All  flowers  naturally  turn  toward  the  light,  as  if  they  loved  it. 
You  can  see  this  if  you  watch  plants  that  are  standing  near  a 
window.  The  flowers  will  all  be  bent  toward  the  light  if  you  let 
the  pots  stand  just  in  the  same  way  all  the  time.  By  turning  the 
pots  a  little  every  day  or  two  while  the  blossoms  are  opening,  you 
can  make  the  flowers  look  in  different  directions. 

There  are  some  flowers  that  shut  themselves  up  at  night  as  if 
to  go  to  sleep,  and  open  again  in  the  morning.  Tulips  do  this. 
I  was  once  admiring  in  the  morning  some  flowers  that  were  sent 
to  me  the  evening  before  by  a  lady.  Among  them  were  some 
tulips,  and  out  of  one  of  these,  as  it  opened,  flew  a  bumble-bee. 
A  lazy,  dronish  bee  he  must  have  been  to  be  caught  in  this  way 
as  the  flower  was  closing  itself  for  the  night.  Or,  perhaps  he  had 
done  a  hard  day's  work  in  gathering  honey,  and  just  at  night  was 
so  sleepy  that  he  staid  too  long  in  the  tulip,  and  so  was  shut  in. 
A  very  elegant  bed  the  old  bee  had  that  night.  I  wonder  if  he 
slept  any  better  than  he  would  have  done  if  he  had  been  in  his 
homely  nest. 

The  pond-lily  closes  its  pure  white  leaves  at  night  as  it  lies 
upon  its  watery  bed.     But  it  unfolds  them  again  in  the  morning. 


38  HABITS    OF   FLOWERS. 


Mountain  daisies.  Dandelions.  Salsify. 

How  beautiful  it  looks  as  it  is  spread  out  upon  the  water  in  the 
sunlight!  The  little  mountain  daisy  that  I  told  you  about  in 
the  last  chapter,  is  among  the  flowers  that  close  at  night.  But  it 
is  as  bright  as  ever  on  its  "slender  stem"  when  it  wakes  up  in 
the  morning.  When  it  shuts  itself  up  it  is  a  little  round  green 
ball,  and  looks  something  like  a  pea.  You  would  not  see  it  in 
the  midst  of  the  grass  if  you  did  not  look  for  it.  But  look  the 
next  morning,  and  the  ball  is  opened,  and  shows  "  a  golden  tuft 
within  a  silver  crown."  And  very  beautiful  it  is  when  there  are 
so  many  of  the  daisies  together  that  the  grass  is  spangled  with 
them  in  the  bright  sun.  It  is  supposed  that  this  flower  was  at 
first  called  "day's  eye,"  because  it  opens  its  eye  at  the  day's 
dawn,  and  after  a  while  it  became  shortened  to  daisy. 

The  golden  flowers  of  the  dandelion  are  shut  up  every  night. 
They  are  folded  up  so  closely  in  their  green  coverings,  that  they 
look  like  buds  that  had  never  yet  been  opened.  The  blossoms 
of  the  salsify,  or  vegetable  oyster,  close  in  the  same  manner,  but 
not  at  the  same  time.  They  close  always  at  noon.  In  the  morn- 
ing their  tall,  straight  stalks  make  quite  a  brilliant  appearance, 
each  one  having  a  deep  purple  flower  at  its  top.  All  these  are 
shut  up  in  the  afternoon,  and  you  see  at  the  top  of  each  stalk  a 
large  pointed  bud.  The  flowers  of  this  plant  are  very  much  like 
the  dandelion,  both  when  closed  and  when  open.  The  seeds,  also, 
are  very  similar,  as  you  will  see  in  another  chapter,  and  make  to- 
gether, around  the  top  of  the  stalk,  a  similar  feathery  globe. 

There  is  one  curious  habit  which  the  dandelion  has.  "When  the 
sun  is  very  hot  it  closes  itself  up  to  keep  from  wilting.     It  is  in 


HABITS    OF   FLO  WEES.  39 

Primroses.  Four  o'clocks.  Flowers  of  the  cypress-vine. 

this  way  sheltered  in  its  green  covering  from  the  sun.  It  some- 
times, when  the  weather  is  very  hot,  shuts  itself  up  as  early  as 
nine  o'clock  in  the  morning. 

Some  flowers  hang  down  their  heads  at  night  as  if  they  were 
nodding  in  their  sleep.  But  in  the  morning  they  lift  them  up 
again  to  welcome  the  light. 

Some  flowers  have  a  particular  time  to  open.  The  evening 
primrose  does  not  open  till  evening,  and  hence  comes  its  name. 
The  flower  called  four  o'clock  opens  at  that  hour  in  the  after- 
noon. There  is  a  flower  commonly  called  go-to-hed-at-noon,  that 
always  opens  in  the  morning  and  shuts  up  at  noon. 

Most  flowers  last  for  some  time.  But  there  are  some  that  last 
only  a  few  hours.  The  red  flowers  of  the  delicate  and  rich  cy- 
press-vine open  in  the  morning,  and  in  the  afternoon  they  close 
up,  never  to  open  again.  But  there  are  always  some  buds  to  open 
every  day.  It  is  delightful  to  one  who  loves  flowers  to  see  every 
morning  a  new  set  of  these  bright  blossoms  appear  among  the  fine 
dark-green  leaves  of  this  vine. 

Questions. — What  is  said  of  flowers  turning  to  the  light  ?  What  do  some  flowers 
do  at  night  ?  Tell  about  the  bumble-bee.  What  is  said  of  the  pond-lily  ?  What 
of  the  mountain  daisy  ?  What  of  the  dandelion  ?  What  is  said  of  the  time  of 
opening  of  some  flowers  ?    Tell  about  the  flowers  of  the  cypress- vine. 


40  MORE   ABOUT   THE    HABITS   OF   FLOWERS. 


Buds  and  flowers  of  the  morning-glory. 


CHAPTER  VIII. 

MORE   ABOUT   THE   HABITS   OF   FLOWERS. 

You  have  often  seen  the  flowers  of  the  morning-glory.  These 
last  only  from  early  in  the  morning  to  noon,  or  a  little  after 
noon.  In  the  afternoon  they  are  all  closed  up,  and  the  vines 
look  very  dull  without  any  flowers  on  them.  But  look  the  next 
morning,  and  you  will  see  a  plenty  of  these  beautiful  flowers. 
They  open  before  most  people  are  out  of  their  beds.  And,  just 
as  I  told  you  about  the  cypress-vine,  there  is  a  new  set  of  them 
every  day. 

It  is  curious  to  see  in  what  way  the  blossom  of  the  morning- 
glory  opens  and  then  shuts  itself  up  to  die.  If  you  look 
in  the  afternoon  you  will  find  here  and  there  a  bud  shaped 
as  you  see  in  this  figure.  The  flower  part  of  it,  you  ob- 
serve, is  twisted  at  its  pointed  end  in  a  spiral  manner; 
that  is,  something  like  a  cork-screw.  This  bud  will  be 
an  open  flower  the  next  morning. 

On  the  following  page  you  see  the  flower  as  it  looks 
when  it  is  fully  opened.  There  are  ribs  running  up  from 
the  lower  part  of  the  flower.  Each  of  these  ribs  comes  to 
a  point  at  the  edge.  They  give  firmness  to  the  blossom. 
They  are  its  frame-work,  its  timbers.  Without  these 
ribs  it  could  not  stand  like  a  cup  on  its  stem,  as  it  does  now,  but 
would  hang  loosely  down.     The  open  spread  part  of  the  flower 


MORE   ABOUT   THE   HABITS   OF   FLOWERS. 


41 


Closing  of  the  flower  of  the  morning-glory. 


is  very  thin,  and  the  ribs  are  to 
it  what  the  whalebones  are  to 
an  umbrella. 

In  this  figure  you 
see  how  the  flower 
looks  as  it  is  partly 
closed.  The  points 
of  the  ribs  are  all 
turned  in  toward  the 
middle  of  the  flower. 
They  bend  in  more 
and  more,  and  after 
a  while  the  flower 
wilts  and  dies.  Now 
it  is  curious  that  the 
ribs  of  the  flower 
should  be  folded  so  differently 
when  it  closes  from  what  they  are  before  it  opens.  Before  it 
opens  they  are  folded  in  a  spiral  form,  as  you  see  in  the  figure  in 
the  preceding  page.  When  it  shuts  up,  we  should  suppose  that 
they  would  fold  up  in -the  same  form.  But  they  do  not.  They 
bend  straight  over,  and  the  points  come  together  in  the  middle  of 
the  flower. 

There  are  some  flowers  that  open  only  at  night.  That  splen- 
did flower,  the  night-blooming  cereus,  is  one  of  them.  And  it 
opens  only  once.  It  lets  us  see  its  beauty  only  a  few  hours,  and 
then  it  wilts  and  dies.     It  is  a  very  large  flower,  and  its  opening 


42  MORE   ABOUT   THE    HABITS   OF   FLOWERS. 

Night-blooming  cereus.  The  succession  of  flowers. 


is  commonly  watched  for  with  great  eagerness.  It  is  a  rare  flower, 
and  it  is  only  now  and  then  that  we  can  get  an  opportunity  of  see- 
ing it.  It  is  very  fragrant.  It  opens  commonly  quite  late  in  the 
evening,  and  shuts  itself  up  the  latter  part  of  the  night.  It  never 
lets  the  light  of  day  into  its  bosom.  It  makes  us  feel  almost  sad 
that  so  beautiful  a  flower  lasts  so  short  a  time.  We  should  feel 
really  sad  if  most  flowers  did  not  last  longer  than  this. 

Through  spring,  summer,  and  autumn,  we  have  a  succession 
of  flowers  of  every  kind.  Some  last  but  a  little  while,  and  some 
feast  our  eyes  for  a  long  time.  They  come  one  after  another. 
Each  has  its  own  season,  and  opens  at  its  appointed  time  every 
year.  In  this  succession  of  flowers  we  are  never  without  some 
of  them  before  us  till  the  cold  weather  of  winter  comes  ao;ain. 
God  has  thus  kindly  provided  us  with  beautiful  things  to  look 
upon,  in  the  garden  and  in  the  field,  through  all  the  warmer 
months  of  the  year. 

In  the  spring  the  flowers  are  small  and  delicate,  but  are  gener- 
ally quite  fragrant.  In  the  summer  we  have  very  many  more 
flowers  than  in  spring  or  autumn.  They  have  every  variety  of 
color  and  shape.  They  are  commonly  very  fragrant,  so  that  the 
air  is  filled  with  pleasant  odors.  In  autumn  the  flowers  generally 
have  bright  colors,  and  are  very  showy ;  but  few  of  them  have  any 
fragrance. 

Questions. — How  are  the  flowers  of  the  morning-glory  like  those  of  the  cypress- 
vine  ?  Tell  about  the  bud  of  the  morning-glory ;  also  about  the  flower  when  it  is 
open,  its  shape,  and  its  ribs  ;  also  about  the  way  in  which  it  shuts  up.  "What  is  said 
of  the  night-blooming  cereus  ?  Tell  about  the  succession  of  flowers.  How  are  the 
flowers  of  the  spring,  and  summer,  and  autumn  different  ? 


WHAT   LIVE   ON   FLOWERS.  43 

Food  in  flowers.  Honey-bees.  Bumble-bees. 


CHAPTER  IX. 

<  WHAT    LIVE    ON    FLOWEES. 

Flowers  are  made  chiefly  for  us  to  look  at  them.  It  is  to 
gratify  our  eyes,  as  I  have  before  told  you,  that  the  Creator  has 
made  them  so  beautiful,  and  lias  given  to  them  such  a  variety  of 
shape  and  color.  But  they  are  good  for  something  else  besides 
this.  Many  different  animals  get  their  food  from  them.  These 
animals  are  very  small,  and  need  but  little  food ;  but  that  little 
they  get  from  flowers. 

You  see  many  different  kinds  of  insects  about  most  flowers. 
Most  of  these  insects,  we  suppose,  live  upon  the  honey  that  they 
find  there.  We  know  that  some  do,  for  we  see  them  gathering 
it.  We  see  the  bees  do  this.  The  busy  little  honey-bee  goes 
from  flower  to  flower,  and  gets  a  little  honey  from  each.  When 
he  has  gathered  as  much  as  he  well  can  carry,  off  he  flies  to  lay 
it  up  in  the  hive.  A  great  many  bees  there  are  in  one  hive  ;  and 
each  bringing  continually  his  little  load,  they  after  a  while  lay  up 
a  large  amount  of  honey. 

The  bumble-bee,  too,  is  busy  among  the  flowers.  See  how 
quickly  he  flies  from  one  flower  to  another,  humming  as  he  goes. 
Now  he  comes  to  a  little  flower,  sticks  his  head  in,  and  in  a  mo- 
ment is  off — buzz,  buzz — for  another.  And  now  you  see  him 
come  to  a  large,  deep  flower ;  and  in  he  goes,  almost  out  of  sight, 
and  his  buzzing  is  stopped  for  some  time.      Soon  he  backs  out  to 


44  WHAT   LIVE    ON   FLOWERS. 

Curious  facts  about  bumble-bees. 

fly  to  another.  And  so  he  goes  from  flower  to  flower  to  gather 
his  load  of  honey. 

I  have  been  amused  to  see  how  the  bumble-bee  manages  with 
some  flowers.  The  flower  of  the  cypress-vine  is  very  deep,  but 
it  is  so  small  that  he  can  not  get  into  it  so  as  to  retell  the  honey. 
He  knows  that  there  is  honey  there,  for  he  smells  it.  Now  how 
do  you  think  he  gets  at  it  ?  By  working  away  a  little  while  he 
pushes  himself  into  the  flower  so  as  to  split  it  open.  And  now 
he  can  -come  to  the  bottom  of  the  flower  where  the  honey  is.  In 
this  way  he  spoils  a  great  many  flowers  in  getting  his  load  of 
honey. 

I  have  observed  one  thins;  about  the  bumble-bees  that  I  do  not 
understand.  Some  of  them  go  inside  of  flowers  to  get  their  honey, 
while  others  go  only  on  the  outside,  just  at  the  bottom  of  the  cup 
of  the  flower.  It  is  curious  to  see  two  bumble-bees  on  one  stalk 
of  flowers,  one  going  into  all  of  them,  and  the  other  getting  his 
honey  from  the  outside  of  them.  I  have  often  seen  this,  but  never 
could  find  the  reason  of  it. 

Another  thins:  I  have  observed  about  the  bumble-bees.  Each 
one  generally  goes  only  to  flowers  of  one  kind.  If,  for  instance, 
he  begins  with  china-asters,  he  will  go  to  no  other  flowers  to 
gather  his  honey.  He  will  sometimes  take  a  look  at  others  as  he 
goes  buzzing  along,  but  he  flies  on  till  he  finds  some  more  china- 
asters.  Soon  off  he  starts  for  his  nest,  and  perhaps,  when  he  comes 
again,  he  goes  to  some  other  kind  of  flowers.  If  he  begin  now 
with  morning-glories,  you  will  see  him  pushing  himself  into  every 
one  that  he  comes  to,  and  he  will  not  stop  at  any  other  flower. 


WHAT   LIVE    ON   FLOWERS. 


45 


Honey  made  from  different  things. 


Butterfli 


We  commonly  speak  of  the  bees  as  gathering  honey.  This  is 
not  exactly  correct.  They  make  honey  out  of  what  they  get  from 
the  flowers.  And  it  is  well  known  that  the  honey-bees,  as  they  are 
called,  can  manufacture  better  honey  from  what  they  gather  from 
some  flowers  than  they  can  from  what  they  gather  from  others. 
From  the  fragrant  flowers  of  the  garden  and  the  white  clover  of 
the  fields  is  made  the  delicate  white  honey  that  you  often  see  on 
the  tea-table.  But  the  bee  can  not  always  find  such  nice  food ; 
and  then  it  flies  off  to  the  buckwheat  fields,  or  perhaps  helps  it- 
self to  the  drainings  of  some  mo- 
lasses or  sugar  cask  in  front  of  the 
grocer's  door.  Honey  made  from 
these  things  does  very  well  for  the 
bees'  winter  store,  but  it  does  not 
suit  our  taste. 

Those  beautiful  insects,  the  but- 
terflies, get  their  living  among  the 
flowers.  As  they  fly  about,  they 
now  and  then  stop  and  rest  upon 
some  flower,  as  you  see  this  one 
doing.  This  is  done  not  merely  for  the  sake  of  resting,  but  to 
take  some  food  from  the  flower. 

Questions. — What  use  have  flowers  besides  being  beautiful  to  look  at  ?  What  is 
said  of  the  honey-bee  ?  What  of  the  bumble-bee  ?  Tell  how  he  manages  with  the 
flowers  of  the  cypress-vine.  What  is  said  about  bumble-bees  going  some  to  the  in- 
side and  some  to  the  outside  of  flowers  ?  "What  is  said  about  the  making  of  honey  ? 
Tell  about  the  butterflies. 


46  MORE    ABOUT   WHAT   LIVE    ON    FLOWERS. 


The  humming-bird  and  his  nest. 


CHAPTER  X. 

MORE   ABOUT    WHAT   LIVE    OX   FLOWERS. 

The  humming-bird  also  lives  on  the  flowers.  This  little  creat- 
ure  seems  always  to  be  on  the  wing  when  he  is  not  in  his  nest. 
He  is  seldom  seen  sitting  on  a  branch  like  other  birds.  As  he 
puts  his  long  bill  into  a  flower  he  does  not  stand  on  any  thing. 
He  is  held  up  by  his  fluttering  wings.  His  wings  never  seem  to 
be  still,  but  are  always  quivering.  And  then  how  very  quickly 
he  goes  from  one  flower  to  another.  He  seems  to  dart  as  if  by  a 
sudden  spring,  instead  of  flying  like  other  birds. 

Here  is  a  representation  of  a  humming-bird,  with  his  nest.     It 

is  the  smallest  nest 
that  is  made  by  a 
bird.  It  is  nicely 
made.  It  is  very  soft 
inside  with  down  and 
other  things.  The 
outside  is  generally 
covered  with  moss 
gathered  from  trees 
or  fences.  Fastened 
on  to  the  branch  of  a 
tree,  as  you  see,  it 
does  not  appear  like 


MORE   ABOUT   WHAT    LIVE    ON   FLOWERS.  47 

Anecdote  about  a  humming-bird.  Variety  of  insects  about  flowers. 

a  nest  if  you  look  at  it  sideways.  It  is  so  nearly  of  the  same  color 
with  the  bark  of  the  branch,  that  you  would  not  be  apt  to  observe 
it  unless  you  were  looking  very  sharp. 

A  lady  once  found  a  humming-bird  that  seemed  almost  dead. 
Its  long  slender  tongue  lay  out  of  its  bill,  and  it  was  very  dry. 
She  pitied  the  poor  bird,  and  moistened  its  tongue  with  a  little 
sugar  and  water.  It  drew  its  tongue  in,  and  then  put  it  out 
again.  As  it  seemed  to  like  the  sugar  and  water,  she  gave  it 
more.  Soon  the  little  creature  was  so  revived  that  it  was  on  its 
fluttering  wings  again,  and  flew  off  to  sip  something  better  than 
sugar  and  water  from  the  beautiful  flowers. 

I  have  told  you  about  the  bees  and  butterflies.  There  are 
other  insects  besides  these  that  seem  to  get  their  living  from  flow- 
ers. There  is  a  great  variety  of  them  about  flowers,  if  we  look 
for  them.  St.  Pierre,  a  Frenchman  in  Paris,  watched  a  straw- 
berry-plant that  he  had  in  a  flower-pot.  In  three  weeks  he 
counted  thirty-seven  different  kinds  of  insects  that  visited  it. 

If  you  go  out  into  the  garden  in  the  middle  of  the  day,  you  will 
see  what  a  variety  of  insects  there  is.  There  are  more  about 
some  flowers  than  about  others.  About  some  of  them  there  are 
so  many  that  it  makes  a  very  lively,  busy  scene.  Besides  the 
bees  you  will  see  flies  of  every  color  and  of  every  size.  Some  are 
flying  from  flower  to  flower.  Some  seem  to  be  on  the  wing  all 
the  time.  These  are  all  the  while  singing  as  they  hover  over  the 
flowers,  as  if  they  enjoyed  themselves  very  much  in  looking  at 
such  beautiful  things.  And  others  are  resting  themselves  here 
and  there,  or  are  walking  leisurely  about. 


48  MORE   ABOUT   WHAT   LIVE    ON   FLOWERS. 


Bugs  on  Howers.        Insects  mostly  gone  from  flowers  at  night.        The  chilled  bumble-bee, 

Besides  the  flies,  there  are  bugs  crawling  about  on  the  flowers. 
These  are  of  various  sizes,  and  some  of  them  are  very  small.  Some 
of  them  have  brilliant  and  rich  colors. 

There  is  a  great  deal  of  hum  and  stir  about  a  plant  where  there 
are  so  many  insects.  It  is  just  as  it  is  where  there  are  many 
people  together.  And  as  some  people  make  more  noise  than 
others,  so  it  is  with  insects.  So,  too,  some  insects  are  more  bus- 
tling than  others. 

At  night  the  scene  is  changed.  The  buzzing  of  the  bees  and 
the  singing  of  the  flies  are  done.  The  insects  have  got  through 
with  their  work  and  their  play,  and  have  gone  to  the  places  where 
they  sleep.  If  you  look  just  at  dusk  at  a  plant  that  you  have 
seen  all  alive  with  insects  in  the  day,  you  will  find  all  quiet.  The 
insects  are  all  gone,  except,  perhaps,  some  little  ones  that  have 
gone  into  the  flowers  to  sleep  on  the  soft  and  elegant  bed  they 
find  there. 

Sometimes  insects,  like  people,  get  into  trouble  by  staying  out 
late  at  night.  On  a  cool  morning  I  found  a  bumble-bee  clinging 
to  a  flower.  He  was  very  torpid,  and  he  could  not  fly  when  I 
poked  him  with  a  little  stick.  He  could  only  buzz  and  stick  out 
his  sting.  After  the  sun  warmed  him  he  flew  off.  I  suppose 
that  he  staid  out  so  late  that  he  got  chilled,  and  could  not  make 
his  way  home  to  his  nest. 

Questions. — Tell  about  the  humming-bird,  and  about  his  nest.  Give  the  anec- 
dote told  about  a  humming-bird.  Tell  about  the  Frenchman  and  his  strawberry- 
plant.  What  is  said  of  the  variety  of  flies  that  we  see  about  flowers  ?  And  of  the 
variety  of  bugs  ?  "What  is  said  of  the  hum  and  stir  about  some  plants  ?  How  is  it 
at  night  ?     Tell  about  the  bumble-bee. 


WHAT   THE   BIBLE   SAYS   ABOUT   FLOWERS.  49 


Why  man  is  compared  to  a  flower. 


CHAPTER  XI. 

WHAT   THE    BIBLE   SAYS   ABOUT   FLOWERS. 

Flowers  are  often  mentioned  in  the  Bible.  Man  is  said  to  be 
like  a  flower,  because  as  he  dies  and  is  buried  in  the  earth,  so 
the  flower  fades  and  withers,  and  falls  to  the  ground.  I  might 
give  you  many  texts  where  this  comparison  is  made.  But  I  will 
mention  only  one,  which  you  will  find  in  the  first  chapter  of  the 
First  Epistle  of  Peter,  in  the  twenty-fourth  verse.  "  For  all  flesh 
is  as  grass,  and  all  the  glory  of  man  as  the  flower  of  grass.  The 
grass  withereth,  and  the  flower  thereof  falleth  away." 

Man  is  compared  in  the  Bible  to  a  flower  for  another  reason. 
Flowers  live  but  a  little  while.  This  is  true  even  of  those  that 
live  the  longest.  Some  last  but  a  few  hours,  as  I  told  you  about 
the  flowers  of  the  morning-glory  and  the  cypress-vine.  So  it  is 
with  mankind.  Some  die  very  young.  These  are  like  the  morn- 
ing-glories. They  are  beautiful  while  they  live,  and  parents  and 
friends  like  to  look  at  them,  just  as  we  like  to  look  at  the  beau- 
tiful flowers.  But  their  life  is  short,  very  short,  like  a  flower 
that  blooms  only  for  a  day,  and  then  withers  and  falls.  When 
such  a  child  dies,  how  appropriate  to  put  flowers  into  the  coffin  ! 
The  dead  child  is  beautiful  and  pleasant  to  look  upon,  like  the 
flower  cut  from  its  stalk,  and  both  will  decay  together. 

But  perhaps  you  will  say  that  old  persons  are  not  like  flowers, 
for  they  live  a  great  while.  It  may  seem  a  long  time  to  you,  but 
i  D 


50  WHAT   THE   BIBLE   SAYS   ABOUT   FLOWERS. 

Why  death  is  said  to  cut  down  people.  The  lilies  of  the  field. 

if  you  ask  them,  they  will  tell  you  that  life,  as  they  look  back 
upon  it,  is  very  short.  They  are  like  the  flowers  that  live  the 
longest.  While  the  infant  that  dies  is  like  the  flower  that  lives 
but  a  few  hours,  those  that  die  old  are  like  the  flowers  that  last 
many  days.  That  is  all  the  difference.  All  flowers  die,  and  so 
do  all  people,  and  other  flowers  and  other  people  take  their  places. 
In  comparing  people  to  flowers,  the  Bible  speaks  of  them  as 
being  cut  down.  And  you  have  perhaps  seen  in  an  old  primer 
Time  represented  as  an  old  man  having  a  scythe,  and  underneath 
it  reads : 

Time  cuts  down  all, 
Both  great  and  small. 

It  is  because  death  is  often  so  sudden  both  to  young  and  old 
that  they  are  said  to  be  cut  down  like  the  grass  or  the  flower. 
You  see  a  beautiful  flower  standing  among  the  grass,  fresh  and 
gay,  in  the  bright  sun.  But  the  mower's  scythe  cuts  it  down,  and 
it  wilts  and  dies.  So  it  is  when  death  comes,  as  it  sometimes 
does,  to  the  strong  and  beautiful.  So  sudden  is  the  change,  that 
it  seems  as  if  they  were  really  cut  down  like  the  flower. 

There  is  one  comparison  about  the  beauty  of  flowers  that  you 
have  often  read  in  the  Bible.  It  is  this  :  "  Consider  the  lilies  of 
the  field,  how  they  grow ;  they  toil  not  neither  do  they  spin ; 
and  yet  I  say  unto  you,  that  even  Solomon  in  all  his  glory  was 
not  arrayed  like  one  of  these."  Now  Solomon  had  very  rich 
clothing,  for  he  was  a  very  rich  king.  But  take  the  richest  cloth- 
ing and  look  at  it  carefully,  and  then  look  at  even  common  flowers, 
and  you  will  say  that  they  are  much  more  beautiful  than  the 


WHAT   THE    BIBLE    SAYS    ABOUT    FLOWERS.  51 

Flower3  and  cloth  compared.  Weedy-looking  flowers. 

clothing.  And  the  difference  is  very  great  when  you  use  a  micro- 
scope. The  splendid  cloth  looks  coarse  and  rough  when  magni- 
fied. But  it  is  not  so  with  the  flowers.  The  more  they  are  mag- 
nified the  more  beautiful  they  appear. 

Even  flowers  that  we  commonly  think  of  as  weeds,  are  beauti- 
tiful  when  we  come  to  examine  them.  The  ox-eyed  daisy  is  not 
considered  at  all  pretty.  But  pick  it  and  look  at  it  carefully, 
and  you  will  see  much  beauty  in  it.  And  if,  with  a  microscope, 
you  look  at  one  of  the  six  hundred  flowers  in  its  yellow  bosom, 
you  will  say  that  in  this  weedy-looking  flower  there  is  a  whole 
garden  of  beauties.  Few  people  think  much  about  the  tassels 
that  hang  on  so  many  of  the  trees  and  shrubs  in  the  spring ;  but, 
as  I  have  told  you  before,  they  are  rich  in  beauty  when  we  ex- 
amine them. 

Questions. — Why  does  the  Bible  compare  man  to  a  flower  ?  "What  other  reason 
is  there  for  this  comparison  ?  What  flowers  are  they  like  that  die  young,  and  what 
are  they  like  that  die  old  ?  Why  are  people  when  they  die  said  to  be  cut  down  like 
the  grass  or  the  flower  ?  What  does  the  Bible  say  of  the  lilies  of  the  field  ?  What 
is  the  difference  between  cloth  and  flowers  when  you  look  at  them  carefully  ?  What 
is  the  difference  when  you  look  at  them  through  a  microscope  ?  What  is  said  of 
the  beauty  of  common  and  weedy-looking  flowers  ? 


52 


FRUITS. 


Seed-holders  of  the  rose. 


CHAPTEE  XII. 


FEUITS. 

When  a  flower  wilts  and  falls,  there  is  something  left  on  the 
end  of  the  flower-stem.  It  is  this  that  holds  the  seeds.  You  can 
see  this  in  the  rose.  When  the  beautiful  leaves  of  the  flower  are 
all  scattered  by  the  wind,  there  is  a  roundish  thick  part  left  on 
the  end  of  the  stem.  The  seeds  are  in  this.  It  grows  larger,  and 
becomes  of  a  reddish  color.  If  you  break  it  open  you  can  see  the 
seeds  in  it. 

Here  is  represented  this  seed-holder  of  the  rose,  in  the  first 
y»jA      figure  as  whole,  and  in  the  second  as 
cut  open  to  show  the  seeds.    You  see 
that  the  seeds  crowd  it  full.    There  is 
no  room  for  any  thing  else. 

Now  this  we  do  not  call  fruit; 
for  there  is  very  little  of  it,  and  it 
does  not  taste  good.  But  look  at 
what  is  left  when  a  pear-blossom 
falls.  It  is  shaped  very  much  like 
what  is  left  when  the  leaves  of  the 
rose  are  scattered.  But  it  grows 
more  than  that  does.  When  it  is  fully  grown  it  is  larger  than  it 
need  to  be  to  hold  the  seeds.  The  seeds  are  but  a  small  part  of 
it.  It  is  made  to  be  eaten  as  well  as  to  hold  the  seeds.  So  we 
call  it  fruit. 


FEUITS. 


53 


Pears. 


Oranges. 


Berries. 


Grapes. 


Here  is  a  small  pear  cut  in  sucli  a  way  as  to  show  the  seeds. 
You  see  that  it  is  very  different  from  the  pear- 
shaped  seed-holder  of  the  rose.  * 

When  the  blossom  of  the  orange  falls,  you  see 
a  little  round  green  ball  standing  on  the  end  of  the 
stem.  This  grows  very  much,  and  when  it  is 
ripe  it  is  large  and  of  a  yellow  color.  Just  as  it 
is  with  the  pear,  the  orange  is  larger  than  it  needs 
to  be  to  hold  the  seeds.  We  call  it  fruit,  because 
it  is  made  for  us  to  eat. 

The  little  yellow  flower  of  the  currant,  when  it  falls,  leaves  a 
small,  round  berry.  This  grows,  and  becomes  red 
when  it  ripens.  So  it  is  with  the  gooseberry. 
The  whortleberry,  you  know,  grows  dark  when  it 
ripens.  These  berries  have  the  seeds  inside  of 
them.  The  strawberry  has  its  seeds  on  the  out- 
side, as  you  see  here,  and  they  give  it  a  very 
pretty  appearance. 

These  berries  are  all  larger  than  they  need  to 
be  to  hold  the  seeds.  The  Creator  intends  them  for  fruit.  But 
he  never  intended  that  what  holds  the  rose-seeds  should  be  fruit, 
and  so  he  made  it  only  large  enough  to  hold  the  seeds. 

The  flowers  on  the  grape-vine  are  very  small  and  delicate.  They 
are  much  smaller  than  the  fruit  that  forms  after  they  fall.  The 
delicious  grape  is  something  more  than  a  seed-holder.  If  it  were 
meant  only  to  hold  the  seeds,  it  would  not  have  all  that  juicy  pulp 
that  is  so  pleasant  to  the  taste. 


54  FRUITS. 


Different  sizes  of  fruits.  Seeds  that  are  fruits. 

Fruits  are  of  very  different  sizes.  The  fruits  of  some  vines  are 
very  large,  as  the  pumpkin  and  the  water-melon.  The  fruits  of 
some  large  trees  are  quite  small.  This  is  the  case  with  the  wal- 
nut and  the  chestnut.  The  acorn  is  a  very  small  nut,  but  every 
child  has  been  taught  that 

"  Tall  oaks  from  little  acorns  grow." 
Some  of  the  trees  in  warm  climates  bear  very  large  fruit.     Cocoa- 
nuts  are  an  example. 

The  fruits  of  the  earth  that  are  most  largely  used  by  man  are 
in  the  form  of  seeds.  This  is  the  case  with  grain,  corn,  peas, 
beans,  etc.  Most  of  what  we  raise  of  these  is  used  for  food,  and 
we  keep  but  a  very  small  part  for  seed  for  the  next  year.  The 
different  kinds  of  grain  and  corn  are  used  in  making  bread ;  and 
this,  you  know,  is  a  part  of  our  food  that  we  depend  upon  so 
much,  that  it  is  called  the  staff  of  life.  And  this  is  the  reason 
that  in  the  Lord's  Prayer  bread  is  used  as  meaning  food,  when  we 
say,  Give  us  this  day  our  daily  bread. 

The  grains  from  which  our  bread  is  made  are  quite  small.  But 
there  are  a  great  many  of  them.  And  they  are  freed  from  their 
chaffy  coverings,  and  are  ground  between  millstones,  so  as  to 
be  changed  into  the  fine  flour,  from  which  we  make  bread. 

Questions. — What  is  said  of  the  seed-vessel  of  the  rose  ?  How  is  a  pear  different 
from  this  ?  "What  is  said  of  the  orange  ?  What  of  currants,  strawberries,  etc.  ? 
What  is  said  of  grapes  ?  What  is  said  of  the  different  sizes  of  fruits  ?  In  what 
shape  are  the  fruits  that  are  most  used  by  man?  Why  is  bread  called  the  staff  of 
life  ?    How  do  we  get  the  flour  from  which  we  make  bread  ? 


MORE   ABOUT    FRUITS.  55 


Fruits  made  from  the  sap. 


CHAPTER  XIII. 

MORE    ABOUT    FRUITS. 

You  will  want  to  know  out  of  what  all  the  fruits  are  made. 
They  are  made  from  the  sap,  just  as  the  flower  is.  After  the 
flower  has  fallen  the  sap  keeps  coming  along  the  pipes  in  the 
stem.  And  what  is  on  the  end  of  the  stem  is  made  out  of  the 
sap  into  fruit. 

You  remember  that  I  told  you  that  a  flower  is  never  like  the  sap 
from  which  it  is  made.  The  same  is  true  of  the  fruit.  Bite  the 
stem  of  a  cluster  of  grapes,  and  you  will  see  that  the  sap  in  it  has 
none  of  the  sweetness  of  the  grapes ;  and  yet  they  are  made  out 
of  it,  just  as  the  flowers  were  before  them. 

How  different  the  fruit  often  is  from  the  flower  that  was  before 
it,  though  they  are  both  made  from  the  same  sap  ■  It  may  not, 
perhaps,  seem  strange  to  you  that  the  sweet  orange  and  its  fra- 
grant blossom  can  be  made  of  the  same  sap ;  for,  though  they 
have  different  colors,  they  are  both  sweet.  But  how  different  a 
sour  apple  is  from  the  blossom  that  was  before  it !  And  then,  too, 
the  orange  was  sour  till  it  became  ripe.  But  the  sap  constantly 
came  to  it  through  the  stem,  and  the  juice  after  a  while  became 
sweet.  And  see  how  different  a  thing  the  peal  is  from  the  pulp  of 
the  orange.  It  tastes  quite  sharp,  and  is  sometimes  bitter.  But 
both  peel  and  pulp  are  made  out  of  the  same  sap.  So,  too,  the 
skin  of  some  grapes  has  a  very  different  taste  from  the  pulp. 


56  MORE   ABOUT   FRUITS. 

Variety  in  the  taste  and  color  of  fruits.  Beauty  of  some  fruits. 

You  see  that  there  is  a  great  variety  in  the  fruits  that  God 
has  given  to  us.  I  have  said  something  before  of  their  variety  of 
size.      They  differ  also  in  their  taste,  and  color,  and  shape. 

Some  fruits  are  sour,  and  some  are  sweet.  Many  fruits  have  a 
taste  that  is  very  different  from  the  taste  of  any  other  fruit,  and 
yet  you  can  not  describe  it.  The  chestnut  does  not  taste  like  the 
walnut,  but  you  can  not  describe  the  difference  to  any  one  so  that 
he  w^ould  know  it.  He  must  taste  them  himself  to  know  the  differ- 
ence. Grapes  and  whortleberries  are  both  sweet,  but  they  do  not 
taste  alike.  There  is  a  great  variety  of  sour  apples,  but  you  al- 
ways readily  see  the  difference  between  them  when  you  eat  them. 

There  is  a  great  variety  in  the  colors  of  fruits.  But  it  is  not 
as  great  as  the  variety  of  color  in  flowers.  The  Creator  made 
flowers  especially  to  please  the  eye.  It  is  for  this  that  he  has 
given  them  many  different  colors.  He  could  have  made  fruits 
without  having  any  flowers.  But  he,  in  his  kindness,  wished  to 
have  us  gratified  by  looking  at  beautiful  things. 

Flowers  are  for  beauty,  and  fruits  for  use.  But  many  of  the 
fruits  are  beautiful.  Our  heavenly  Father  likes  to  make  beauty 
go  along  with  what  is  useful.  The  orange  has  a  rich  color,  and 
looks  beautiful  among  the  green  leaves.  We  admire  the  clusters 
of  grapes,  as  they  hang  by  their  slender  stems  under  the  broad 
leaves  of  the  vine.  The  colors  of  some  of  the  varieties  of  the 
peach  and  the  apple  are  very  rich.  The  strawberry  looks  very 
beautiful,  as  the  yellow  seeds  stand  out  on  its  red  surface. 

There  is-  a  great  variety  in  the  forms  of  fruits.  Look  at  the 
chestnut  burr,  and  see  how  different  it  is  from  a  fair-skinned,  round 


MORE   ABOUT   FRUITS.  57 


God's  bounty  in  fruits.  Why  fruits  have  a  pleasant  taste. 

apple.  How  different  is  the  strawberry  that  melts  in  your  mouth 
from  any  of  the  hard  nuts  !  How  different  is  the  cocoa-nut  from 
a  melon ! 

God  smiles  upon  us  in  the  flowers.  But  in  the  fruits  we  have 
something  more  than  his  smiles.  In  them  he  blesses  us  with  his 
bounty.  The  flowers  are  a  feast  to  our  eyes ;  but  the  fruits  are 
food  to  our  bodies. 

But  fruits  are  not  made  merely  to  nourish  us.  They  are  so 
made  that  they  gratify  our  taste  while  they  nourish  us  and  sus- 
tain our  lives.  And  in  this  we  see  the  kindness  of  our  heavenly 
Father,  just  as  we  do  in  the  beauty  that  he  has  given  us  to  look 
upon  in  both  flowers  and  fruits.  He  could  have  made  the  fruits 
in  such  a  way  that  they  would  be  without  any  pleasant  taste. 
And  they  would  have  answered  as  well  to  nourish  us  as  they  now 
do.  But  he  wanted  to  gratify  us  in  this  as  he  does  in  other 
things.  For  this  purpose  he  has  given  to  each  kind  of  fruit  its  own 
taste.     All  fruits  are  pleasant,  but  each  is  different  from  the  rest. 

The  variety  of  pleasant  tastes  in  the  fruits  of  the  earth  is  very 
great,  as  you  will  see  if  you  will  think  of  as  many  of  them  as  you 
can.  What  an  evidence  is  this  of  God's  abundant  goodness  !  He 
does  not  gratify  us  merely  in  a  few  tilings,  but  in  many  things. 
The  pleasant  things  of  this  world  are  almost  endless  in  their  va- 
riety. How  strange  it  is  that  any  one  can  know  all  this,  and 
live  on  day  after  day  without  any  gratitude  to  his  Maker ! 

Questions. — What  are  fruits  made  from  ?  Is  the  fruit  ever  like  the  sap  ?  What 
is  said-  about  the  orange  ?  What  is  said  of  the  taste  of  fruits  ?  What  of  their  col- 
ors ?  What  of  their  different  forms  ?  What  is  it  said  that  God  does  in  the  flowers, 
and  what  in  the  fruits  ?     Why  is  there  such  a  variety  of  pleasant  tastes  in  fruits  ? 


58  WHAT    SEEDS   ARE    FOR. 

Growth  from  seeds  wonderful.  Beans.  Corn. 


CHAPTER  XIV. 

WHAT    SEEDS   ARE    FOR. 

In  telling  you  about  fruits  I  told  you  also  something  about 
seeds.  In  this  chapter  I  shall  tell  you  more  about  them.  Plants 
commonly  come  up  from  seeds.  It  is  very  curious  to  see  how 
this  is  done.  But  most  people  do  not  think  much  about  it.  Gar- 
deners and  farmers  put  seeds  into  the  ground.  They  see  the 
plants  come  up  from  them.  They  see  these  plants  grow  and  blos- 
som, and  after  a  while  they  gather  fruit  from  them.  And  they 
do  not  seem  to  think  that  there  is  any  thing  wonderful  in  all  this. 
But  when  you  have  read  what  I  shall  tell  you  about  it,  I  think 
that  you  will  say  that  it  is  very  wonderful. 

You  put  a  bean  into  the  ground.  A  vine  comes  up  from  it. 
This  runs  up  a  pole,  winding  round  and  round  it  as  it  goes  up. 
It  blossoms.  Then  come  the  pods.  In  these  are  beans  just  like 
that  which  you  put  into  the  ground.  All  this  comes  from  that 
single  little  bean.  And  there  is  nothing  there  like  what  you  put 
into  the  ground  but  the  beans.  The  vine,  the  leaves,  the  flowers, 
are  nothing  like  the  bean  from  which  they  grew. 

When  you  put  a  kernel  of  corn  in  the  ground  there  comes  up 
a  stalk.  From  this  spread  out  broad,  long  leaves.  At  length 
large  ears  of  corn  form.  A  great  deal  has  come  from  that  single 
kernel.  And  of  all  this  only  the  kernels  of  corn  on  the  ear  are 
like  what  you  put  into  the  ground.  * 


WHAT    SEEDS    ARE    FOE.  59 

Acorns.  How  seeds  begin  to  grow. 

An  acorn  falls  from  an  oak-tree.  This  is  the  seed.  But  no- 
thing will  grow  from  it  unless  it  gets  into  the  ground.  A  cow 
perhaps  treads  on  it,  and  so  presses  it  into  the  earth.  A  twig- 
shoots  up  from  it.  This,  after  many  years,  grows  to  be  a  large 
tree.  Here  a  very  great  deal  has  come  from  the  seed  in  the  ground. 
And  the  monstrous  tree  is  not  at  all  like  the  little  acorn  from 
which  it  came. 

You  will  want  to  know  how  it  is  that  so  much  comes  from  a 
small  seed.     I  will  now  tell  you  as  much  about  this  as  I  can. 

After  a  seed  has  been  in  the  ground  a  little  while  it  swells, 
because  the  dampness  of  the  earth  gets  into  it.  The  covering  of 
the  seed  breaks,  and  out  comes  a  little  root.  This  root  pushes 
down  into  the  ground.  Pretty  soon  there 
comes  out  of  the  seed  also  a  little  stalk. 
This  shoots  upward.  Here  is  a  represent- 
ation of  a  seed  which  has  burst.  And  you 
see  the  root,  with  its  fine  fibres,  going  down 
while  the  stalk  goes  up.  JSTow  what  makes 
the  root  go  down  and  the  stalk  go  up  we 
do  not  know.  Many  very  wise  men  have 
tried  to  find  this  out.  But  they  can  not 
do  it.  They  have  guessed  a  good  deal  about  it ;  but  guessing  is 
not  knowing,  though  people  often  think  it  is.  The  Creator 
knows,  and  he  makes  the  root  of  every  seed  go  down  and  the 
stalk  go  up.  There  is  never  any  mistake  about  this.  You 
never  see  a  root  pushing  up  through  the  ground  and  a  stalk 
growing  down. 


60  WHAT   SEEDS   ARE   FOR. 

Barley-seed.  A  tree  growing  on  a  wall. 

Here  you  see  the  way  in  which  a  barley-seed  grows.  Boots 
"branch  out  from  one  end  of  the  seed  down  into  the 
ground,  and  a  stalk  goes  up  from  the  other  end  of  it. 
It  is  so  also  with  corn.  No  matter  how  the  seed  lies 
in  the  ground,  the  roots  will  go  down,  even  if  they 
come  out  of  the  upper  end  of  the  seed ;  and  the  stalk 
will  go  up  to  find  the  air,  though  it  has  to  come  out 
of  the  lower  end. 

Roots  sometimes  seem  to  take  a  great  deal  of  pains, 
as  we  may  say,  to  get  down  into  the  ground.  A  seed 
of  a  tree  was  seen  to  take  root,  in  Galloway  in  Scot- 
land, on  an  old  stone  wall  ten  feet  from  the  ground. 
And  a  tree  shot  up  from  it.  There  was  earth  enough 
in  the  crevices  of  the  wall  to  make  the  little  tree  grow 
for  a  while.  But  after  a  time  it  stopped  growing.  The 
reason  was  that  the  tree  had  become  so  lai*2;e  that  it 
could  not  get  food  enough  out  of  the  earth  in  the  wall.  The 
little  mouths  in  the  root  sucked  up  all  they  could  find ;  but  it 
was  not  enough.  The  tree  needed  more  food  than  when  it  was 
small,  just  as  a  man  needs  more  food  than  an  infant.  What  was 
to  be  done  ?  There  was  a  plenty  of  food  in  the  ground  below,  but 
the  trouble  was  to  get  at  it.  If  somebody  w^ould  take  the  tree 
from  the  wall,  and  set  it  down  into  the  ground,  it  would  do  well 
enough.  But  no  one  did  this.  So  the  tree  managed  the  matter 
itself.  It  sent  its  roots  down  the  wall  the  whole  ten  feet  into  the 
ground.  And  now  it  grew  finely,  and  would  have  done  well  if 
the  wind  had  not  blown  it  over.     It  was  so  stilted  up  on  the  wall 


WHAT   SEEDS   ARE   FOE.  61 

Coverings  of  seeds.  How  they  are  opened  to  let  the  seed  grow. 

that  it  could  not  stand  against  a  strong  wind  as  a  tree  could 
whose  roots  spread  right  from  the  bottom  of  its  trunk  into  the 
ground. 

I  have  mentioned  the  covering  of  the  seed.  If  you  look  at  a 
bean  you  will  see  that  it  has  a  firm  skin.  This  bursts  open  for 
the  root  and  the  stalk  to  come  out.  The  place  where  it  bursts  is 
what  is  called  the  eye.  The  potato,  you  know,  has  many  eyes. 
When  it  is  put  into  the  ground  a  root  and  a  stalk  will  come  out 
from  each  one  of  them.  You  sometimes  see  potatoes  sprout  from 
the  eye  as  they  lay  in  the  cellar. 

There  is  great  difference  in  the  coverings  of  different  seeds. 
The  covering  of  some  nuts  is  very  hard.  You  see  this  in  the 
peach-stone,  the  walnut,  and  the  cocoa-nut.  How  do  you  think 
these  are  opened  so  that  the  root  and  stalk  may  push  out  ?  I  will 
tell  you.  The  peach-stone  and  the  walnut,  by  being  soaked  in 
the  ground,  swell  and  crack  open.  And  as  to  the  cocoa-nuts,  it 
is  said  that  the  monkeys  crack  them  open  by  throwing  them  on 
to  the  ground.  So  it  is  in  various  ways  that  the  prison-house  of 
the  seed,  as  we  may  call  it,  is  opened. 

Questions. — "What  come  from  seeds?  Do  most  people  think  that  there  is  any 
thing  wonderful  in  this  ?  Tell  what  comes  from  a  single  bean.  What  from  a  ker- 
nel of  corn.  What  from  an  acorn.  How  does  the  seed  begin  to  grow  ?  What  is 
said  about  the  stalks  shooting  up  and  the  roots  going  down  ?  Tell  about  the  barley- 
seed.  What  is  told  about  a  tree  ?  What  is  the  eye  of  a  seed  ?  What  is  said  about 
the  difference  in  the  coverings  of  seeds  ?  How  are  some  hard  seeds  opened,  so  that 
the  root  and  stalk  may  push  out  ? 


G2  LIFE    IN   THE    SEED. 


Life  asleep  in  seeds.  The  city  buried  up  with  lava. 


CHAPTER  XV. 

LIFE    IN    THE    SEED. 

A  dry  seed  looks  as  if  it  were  dead.  But  there  is  life  there, 
shut  up  in  that  prison-house.  It  is  very  quiet  as  long  as  it  is 
shut  up.  But  once  let  it  out,  and  it  does  great  things.  An  ap- 
ple-seed, with  its  stout  brown  covering,  is  a  very  little  thing.  It 
does  not  look  as  if  any  thing  could  ever  come  from  it.  But  if  it 
gets  into  the  ground,  the  moisture  swells  it,  the  covering  bursts, 
and  an  apple-tree  comes  from  the  seed.  And  you  know  the  Bible 
tells  us,  a  tree  large  enough  for  the  fowls  of  the  air  to  lodge  in  its 
branches  comes  from  the  little  mustard-seed. 

The  life  in  the  dry  seed  is  asleep.  Put  it  into  the  moist  ground, 
and  this  life  wakes  up.  This  sleep  of  seeds  sometimes  lasts  a 
great  while.  Commonly  we  keep  them  only  from  one  year  to 
another.  •  But  sometimes  they  are  kept  a  long  time  in  their  state 
of  sleep.  I  will  tell  you  a  story  about  this  :  Many  hundred  years 
ago  there  came  a  great  stream  of  lava,  as  it  is  called,  down  from  a 
mountain.  It  was  all  on  fire,  and  looked  like  a  stream  of  melted 
iron.  It  rolled  over  a  city  and  covered  it  up.  All  the  inhabit- 
ants were  killed.  When  the  lava  cooled,  people  came  to  look  for 
the  city,  but  could  not  find  any  of  it.  But  lately,  people  have 
dug  down  through  the  lava,  and  opened  passages  into  this  covered- 
up  city.  They  have  gone  into  the  houses,  and  have  found  many 
things  just  as  they  were  when  the  red-hot  lava  run  over  the  city. 


LIFE    IN   THE   SEED.  63 


Many  seeds  from  one.  Many  destroyed. 

Some  seeds  were  found.  These  were  set  out ;  and  they  sprung 
up  just  as  seeds  do  that  have  been  kept  only  from  one  year  to 
another.  The  life  in  these  seeds,  then,  had  been  asleep  for  many 
hundred  years. 

A  great  many  seeds  come  from  one  seed  put  into  the  ground. 
From  a  single  kernel  of  corn  come  many  ears  full  of  kernels.  The 
kernels  or  seeds  from  one  single  ear  are  enough  to  plant  quite  a 
large  piece  of  ground.  We  use  most  of  the  corn  for  food,  for  we 
need  to  keep  but  little  of  it  for  seed.  So  we  eat  most  of  the  beans 
that  we  raise.  We  keep  only  a  little  bag  of  them  for  planting 
the  next  year.  As  you  look  at  the  little  bag,  you  would  hardly 
think  that  it  holds  what  will  cover  long  rows  of  poles  with  vines. 
There  is  a  great  deal  of  life  asleep  for  the  winter  in  that  bag. 

Most  of  the  seeds  that  drop  from  trees  and  plants  are  killed, 
and  they  decay  on  the  ground  with  the  leaves.  It  is  only  now 
and  then  that  a  seed  lives  and  takes  root.  If  all  seeds  lived  and 
sprung  up  we  should  have  too  many  things  growing  every  where. 
If  all  the  acorns  lived,  and  got  into  the  ground,  and  took  root, 
there  would  be  too  many  oaks.  And  so  of  other  trees  and  plants. 
The  seeds  that  are  scattered  on  the  ground  .have  to  take  their 
chance,  as  we  say.  Some  out  of  the  whole  live  through  the 
winter  in  some  way,  and  come  up  in  the  spring. 

Questions. — "What  is  said  of  life  in  the  seed  ?  What  wakes  it  up  ?  Can  the 
sleep  of  seeds  last  sometimes  a  great  while  ?  Tell  about  the  seeds  from  a  city  that 
was  covered  up  with  lava.  What  is  said  of  the  number  of  seeds  that  come  from' 
one  seed  ?     What  becomes  of  the  seeds  of  plants  and  trees  that  fall  to  the  ground  ? 


64  HOW    SEEDS    ARE    SCATTERED. 


Seeds  scattered  by  man,  by  water,  by  wind,  etc. 


CHAPTER  XVI. 

HOW   SEEDS   ARE   SCATTERED. 

Seeds  are  scattered  in  various  ways.  They  do  not  all  stay 
near  the  place  where  they  drop.  k 

There  are  many  kinds  of  seeds  that  man  scatters  in  raising 
his  crops  from  year  to  year. 

Some  seeds  are  carried  away  by  water.  Sometimes  they  sail 
a  very  great  distance  in  this  way,  and,  like  people,  settle  down  far 
away  from  the  spot  where  they  grew. 

Seeds  are  sometimes  carried  about  in  the  hair  of  animals,  and 
are  dropped  here  and  there.  The  sheep  gets  seeds  into  its  wool, 
and  then  shakes  them  out  as  it  goes  about  the  pasture,  or  rubs 
them  off  against  the  trees  and  the  fences.  The  little  burrs  with 
which  you  make  baskets,  by  sticking  them  together,  are  seed- 
holders.  They  often  stick  to  your  clothes.  When  you  pick  them 
off  and  throw  them  away,  you  help  to  scatter  seeds  just  as  the 
sheep  does. 

The  wind  is  the  great  scatterer  of  seeds.  It  blows  them  about 
if  they  are  at  all  light.  It  sometimes  takes  them  far  away  from 
where  they  grew.  Some  seeds  are  made  in  such  a  way  that  the 
wind  can  blow  them  about  very  easily.  Look  at  the  seed  of  the 
maple-tree.  There  is  a  sort  of  wing  on  it,  as  if  it  were  made  to 
fly.  So  when  it  falls,  it  goes  whirling  away  in  the  air.  It  does 
not  drop  just  by  the  tree  if  the  wind  is  at  all  stirring. 


HOW   SEEDS   ARE   SCATTERED. 


65 


Seeds  of  the  maple,  the  dandelion,  and  the  salsify. 


Here  is  a  representation  of  two  seeds  of  the  maple,  with  their 
wings.  They  always  grow  in  this  way,  in  pairs. 
Look  at  the  little  feathery  ball  on  the  stalk 
of  the  dandelion  after  the  flower  is  gone.  The 
seeds  are  in  the  middle  of  that  ball.  Pick  it, 
and  then  hold  it  up,  and  blow  upon  it  as  hard 
as  you  can.  Away  will  fly  all  the  seeds.  If 
the  wind  is  blowing  it  will  scatter  them  every 
where.  Now  look  at  them  to  see  what  makes  them  fly  so.  You 
see  that  each  seed  has  a  very  little  stem.  This  stem  has  on  its 
end  some  very  fine  fibres  standing  out  all  around.  The  wind 
blows  the  seed  about  by  these  fibres.  If  the  seed  did 
not  have  this  sort  of  balloon  to  fly  with,  it  would  fall 
straight  to  the  ground.  But  with  this  it  may  go  a 
great  distance.  Sometimes  it  travels  over  mountains 
and  across  rivers.  Here  is  a  drawing  of  the  dandelion- 
seed.  But  to  see  how  delicate  it  is,  and  how  well  fitted 
it  is  to  fly,  you  must  look  at  a  real  seed. 
And  here  is  the  stem  of  the  dande- 
lion as  it  looks  after  the  seeds  are  scat- 
tered. You  see  that  it  has  a  cushion- 
shaped  end.  It  is  on  this  that  the 
seeds  are  fastened.  It  is  curious  to  see 
how  regularly  they  are  arranged  so  as 
to  make  that  beautiful  feathery  balk 

The  seed  of  the  salsify  represented 
here,  is  very  much  like  that  of  the  dan- 


E 


66  HOW    SEEDS   ARE   SCATTERED. 

Sceda  of  the  clematis.  Thistle-down.  Mosses  and  ferns 

delion.     But  the  fibres  by  which  it  is  carried  about  by  the  wind 
are,  you  see,  very  delicately  feathered. 

The  seed  of  the  clematis  or  virgin's-bower  is,  as  you 
see,  rather  differently  arranged.  It  has  a  very  long 
stem,  with  little  fibres  standing  out  from  it  all  the  way, 
something  like  a  feather. 

The  down  of  thistles  and  some  other  flowers  is  the 
wing  of  the  seeds  by  which  they  are  scat- 
tered by  the  wind.  Here  is  a  representation 
of  a  seed  with  its  wing  of  down.  A  very 
large  wing  has  this  little  seed  to  fly  with. 
The  seeds  of  mosses  and  ferns  are  scattered  more  widely  than 
any  others  because  they  are  so  small.  You  know  the  mosses 
well.  You  see  them  every  where  on  fences,  rocks,  and  trunks 
of  trees,  as  well  as  on  the  ground.  The  wind  carries  their  fine 
seeds  about,  and  they  lodge  on  every  thing.  They  go  even  to 
the  tops  of  the  mountains,  and  down  into  caverns  in  the  earth. 
There  is  great  variety  in  the  mosses,  and  some  of  them  are  ex- 
ceedingly beautiful,  especially  when  examined  with  a  microscope. 

Questions.— In  what  different  ways  are  seeds  scattered  about  ?  What  is  the  great 
scatterer  of  seeds  ?  What  is  said  of  the  seeds  of  the  maple  ?  What  of  the  seeds  of 
the  dandelion  ?  WThat  of  the  seeds  of  the  salsify— the  clematis— the  thistle  ?  What 
of  the  seeds  of  mosses  and  ferns  ? 


LEAVES. 


67 


Beauty  of  leaves. 


Variety  of  their  shapes. 


CHAPTER  XVII. 

LEAVES. 

Most  trees  and  bushes  are  stripped  of  all  their  leaves  in  the 
autumn,  and  remain  bare  till  the  winter  is  passed.  We  should 
feel  sad  if  they  were  without  leaves  all  the  year  round.  One  use 
of  the  leaves  is  to  gratify  us  by  their  beauty.  When  the  winter 
is  gone  how  delightful  it  is  to  us  to  look  out  upon  the  trees  and 
the  plants  as  they  put  forth  their  leaves !  Their  fresh  green  color 
is  a  feast  to  our  eyes. 

You  remember  what  I  said  about  the  flowers  having  so  many 
different  shapes.  The  Creator  has  made  the  same  variety  in  the 
shapes  of  leaves.  He  likes  to  make  beautiful  things  in  great 
variety  for  us  to  look  at.  Here  I  give  you  some  fig- 
ures of  leaves,  to  show  you  how  different  their  shapes 
are. 

Here  is  a  leaf  which  is  shaped  like  the  head  of  an  ar- 
row.    There  is  a  plant 
called    arrow-head,    be- 
cause its  leaf  has  this  shape. 

Here  is  one  shaped  very  much 
like  a  lance,  another  is  a  good 
representation  of  a  mason's  trow- 
el, and  a  third  is  very  much  like 
a  fiddle.  * 


68 


LEAVES. 


Various  shapes  of  leaves. 


This  is  like  a  shield.     The  nasturtion  has  leaves 
of  this  kind.     The  stem  is  fastened  to  the 
leaf  just   where  the   hand  holds   on   to   a 
shield. 

This  leaf  has  a  tendril  on  the  end  of  it. 
This  clasps  around  whatever  it  happens  to  touch.  Some 
plants  are  held  up  in  this  way  by  their  leaves. 

This  leaf  is  notched  all  around  its  edge,  like  a  saw. 
The  leaves  of  a  great  many  plants  are  notched  in  this 
way,  as  those  of  the  rose,  the  peach,  and 
the  nettle. 

Here  is  one  that  is  notched  differently 
The  teeth  are  rounded,  and  not  sharp.     It  may  be  said 
to  be  scalloped  rather  than  toothed.     The  ground  ivy 
has  a  leaf  of  this  kind. 

Below  are  two  leaves,  one  of  which  is  spread  out  like  a  hand, 
and  the  other  is  very  much  like  the  claws  of  the  feet  of  some 
birds.  The  passion-flower  is  of  the  shape  of  the  hand.  So,  also, 
is  that  of  the  castor-oil  plant. 


LEAVES. 


69 


Variety  in  the  arrangement  of  leaves. 


I  have  thus  given  only  a  few  of  the  shapes  of  leaves.  Their 
variety  is  very  great.  They  vary  not  only  in  shape,  but  in  color. 
They  vary  also  in  other  things.  Some  have  down  on  them,  and 
some  hairs,  and  some  have  neither.  It  will  be  well  for  scholars 
to  see  how  many  different  kinds  of  leaves  they  can  bring  to  the 
teacher,  and  she  will  tell  you  about  them. 

Leaves  are  arranged  in  a  great  many  different 
ways  on  their  stems.  Here  are 
three  leaves  together  on  a  stem. 
The  leaves  of  the  clover  and  the 
wood-sorrel  are  arranged  in  this 
way. 
Here  the  leaf-stem  has  three  little  branches, 
and  each  branch  has  three  leaves. 

On  this  leaf-stem  are  a  great  many  leaves.  I  have  thus  shown 
you  three  ways  in  which  leaves  are  ar- 
ranged. But  there  are  many  other  ways 
in  which  they  are  arranged,  making  a 
great  variety  in  the  appearance  of  leaves. 
The  only  way  to  know  how  very  great 
this  variety  of  arrangement  is,  is  to  look 
for  yourselves  at  plants,  and  trees,  and 
shrubs,  as  you  walk  in  the  garden  or  in 
the  fields. 

Leaves  are  of  all  sizes.  Some  are  very  small,  and  some  are 
very  large.  Look  at  the  little  delicate  leaves  of  the  chick-weed 
and  the  cypress-vine,  and  then  at  the  large  spreading  leaves  of  the 


70  LEAVES. 


Forms  oflcaves  not  commonly  observed. 


rhubarb-plant  and  the  pumpkin-vine,  and  the  very  long  ones  of 
the  corn.  The  common  palm-leaf  fans  so  much  in  use  arc  made 
from  the  large  leaves  of  the  palm-tree. 

I  think  that  you  will  be  quite  interested  in  observing  the  vari- 
ous forms  of  leaves,  though  most  people  do  not  observe  them  much. 
A  friend  once  told  me  that  a  number  of  leaves  from  our  common 
trees  were  brought  to  some  ladies,  and  that  not  one  of  them  could 
tell  from  what  kind  of  tree  each  leaf  came.  It  seems  to  me  that 
they  could  have  used  their  eyes  to  little  purpose,  as  they  walked 
about  among  the  trees  of  the  field  and  the  garden.  They  proba- 
bly looked  at  leaves  merely  as  making  a  pleasant  green  to  the 
eye,  and  never  examined  them,  as  they  perhaps  would  flowers,  to 
see  what  a  difference  there  is  between  them.  You  had  better 
gather  some  leaves  of  various  kinds,  and  see  if  your  schoolmates 
can  tell  from  what  trees  they  came.  Take  the  star-shaped  leaf 
of  the  maple,  the  birch-leaf  with  its  nicely  notched  edges,  the 
bright,  firm  leaf  of  the  oak  with  its  wavy  edge,  and  the  wrinkled 
leaf  of  the  elm.  Show  them  a  willow-leaf  beside  a  peach-leaf, 
which  is  very  much  like  it.  An  apple-leaf  and  a  pear-leaf  togeth- 
er might  puzzle  them,  though  I  think  that  some  wide-awake  child 
would  see  the  difference  between  them. 

Questions. — What  is  said  of  one  of  the  uses  of  leaves  ?  What  of  the  variety  in 
their  shapes  ?  Mention  some  of  these  shapes,  In  what  other  things  do  leaves  vary 
besides  shape  ?  What  is  said  of  the  arrangement  of  leaves  on  their  stems  ?  What 
is  said  of  their  different  sizes  ?     What  is  said  about  observing  the  shapes  of  leaves? 


MORE   ABOUT   LEAVES.  71 

Beauty  of  common  leaves.  Ribs  in  leaves. 


CHAPTER  XVIII. 

MORE    ABOUT    LEAVES. 

Leaves  are  such  common  things  that  we  do  not  think  hew 
beautiful  they  are.  But  take  any  common  leaf  into  your  hand 
and  look  at  it.  Take  the  leaf  of  the  strawberry.  See  how  prettily 
it  is  notched.  Hold  it  up  to  the  light  and  see  the  lines  that  run 
from  the  middle  line  to  the  edge.  Then  see  the  fine  net- work  be- 
tween these  lines.  How  delicate  and  beautiful !  The  leaf  of  the 
raspberry  is  even  more  beautiful  than  the  strawberry  leaf,  if  you 
pick  it  from  a  new  shoot.  See  the  fine  points  on  its  edge,  and 
see  how  delicate  are  its  lines  and  net-work  as  you  hold  it  up  to 
the  light. 

Observe  the  back  of  a  leaf,  and  you  will  see  ribs  that  spread 
out  from  the  main  rib  in  the  middle  to  the  edges.  These  are  the 
frame  of  the  leaf,  just  as  timbers  are  the  frame  of  a  house.  They 
are  to  the  leaf  what  whalebones  are  to  an  umbrella.  They  give 
strength  to  it.  Without  them  it  would  droop  like  a  wilted  leaf. 
It  would  not  stand  out  straight  and  firm.  The  wind  would  blow 
it  every  way,  like  a  rag  tied  to  a  stick. 

You  see  these  ribs  very  large  in  broad  spreading  leaves.  They 
are  large  in  grape-leaves,  and  in  the  leaves  of  the  rhubarb-plant, 
or  pie-plant,  as  it  is  often  called. 

In  leaves  that  are  very  stiff  and  firm  these  ribs  are  so  small, 
that  at  the  first  you  would  say  there  were  none.     This  is  the  case 


72  MORE   ABOUT    LEAVES. 

The  upper  and  under  side  of  leaves.  Leaves  seen  through  the  microscope. 

with  the  leaf  of  the  pear  and  the  orange.  There  is  one  strong  rib 
running  through  in  the  middle  of  the  leaf.  But  there  are  no 
strong  ribs  branching  out  from  this.  The  leaf  is  so  firm  that  it 
does  not  need  them. 

.  See  the  difference  there  is  between  the  upper  and  the  under 
side  of  a  leaf.  The  upper  is  greener  than  the  under  side.  In 
the  grape-leaf  the  under  side  is  covered  with  a  very  fine  white 
furze.  If  you  tear  the  leaf  gently,  you  can  see  the  delicate  white 
fibres  of  this  furze  across  the  rent.  In  the  silver-leaf  poplar  there 
is  a  silvery  whiteness  on  the  under  side  of  the  leaf.  This  makes 
the  tree  look  very  prettily  as  its  branches  are  moved  back  and 
forth  by  the  wind. 

I  have  thus  told  you  a  few  things  about  leaves.  By  looking 
at  them  yourselves  you  will  see  a  great  many  things  in  them  that 
will  interest  you.  Look  at  them  as  you  walk  in  the  garden  or 
roam  in  the  field,  and  you  will  see  that  there  is  no  end  to  the  va- 
riety. And  among  them  all  you  can  not  find  one  that  is  not  beau- 
tiful when  you  examine  it. 

Leaves  are  very  beautiful  if  you  look  at  them  through  a  micro- 
scope. Take  the  most  common  leaf  and  look  at  it  in  this  way, 
and  you  will  be  delighted.  You  will  be  surprised  to  find  how 
much  beauty  there  is  in  leaves  that  you  knew  nothing  about  be- 
fore. 

And  now  I  will  tell  you  about  some  leaves  of  a  very  singular 
character. 

There  are  some  leaves  that  are  of  very  singular  shape.  I  will 
mention  only  a  few. 


MORE   ABOUT   LEAVES. 


73 


Leaf  of  the  side-saddle  flower. 


Chinese  pitcher-plant. 


Here  is  the  leaf  of  the  side-saddle  flower,  as  it  is  called.     It  is 

shaped,  somewhat  like  a  butter- 
boat. You  see  that  it  is  open. 
It  can  hold  considerable  water. 
It  has  a  kind  of  lip,  which  looks 
as  if  it  was  made  on  purpose  that 
water  might  be  poured  out  of  it 
easily.  This  plant  grows  in  some  parts  of  this  country.  The 
flower  is  purple,  and  has  a  curious  shape.  It  is  on  a  stalk  that 
stands  up  in  the  midst  of  about  half-a-dozen  of  these  leaves. 
"One  of  the  most  singular  leaves  is  that  of  the  Chinese  pitcher- 
plant.  At  the  end  of  the  leaf  the  main  rib  extends 
out  like  a  tendril,  and  this  ends  in  the  appendage 
which  is  represented  here.  It  is  in  the  shape  of  a 
pitcher,  and  has,  as  you  see,  a  regular  lid.  This  is 
generally  shut  down,  though,  as  you  see  it  here,  it  is 
raised  up.  The  rain  can  not,  therefore,  get  in,  and  yet 
the  pitcher  is  always  full  of  water.  It  holds  about  a 
tumblerful.  Now  how  do  you  think  this  water  comes 
there  ?  It  is  a  part  of  the  sap  that  comes  to  the  leaf.  The  watery 
part  of  the  sap  is  poured  from  thousands  and  thousands  of  little 
mouths  on  the  inside  of  the  pitcher ;  and  so  it  is  kept  filled  with 
water.  This  plant  is  quite  common  in  the  island  of  Ceylon. 
There  it  is  called  monkey-cup,  because  the  monkeys  sometimes 
open  the  lid  and  drink  the  water.  And  men  sometimes  drink 
from  these  leaves  when  there  is  no  spring  of  water  where  they 
can  quench  their  thirst. 


74 


MORE  ABOUT  LEAVES. 


Venus's  fly-trap. 


Leaves  of  the  fern. 


The  leaf  of  the  Venus's  fly-trap,  which  grows  in  the  Southern 
I  kid    States,  is  a  real  *raP  for  flies  and  other 
:    m  insects.     Here  you  see  the  leaf  as  it 
■* "I :j/  is  spread  out,  wide  open.     It  looks 
H  ^  \  as  if  there  was  no  danger  t^ere.    But 
*  ..^/  let  an  insect  alight  on  the  leaf,  and 
' r  ^  he  is  made  a  prisoner  at  once.    The 

two  parts  of  the  leaf  close  to- 
gether, as  you  see,  and  the 
points  on  the  edges  are  locked 
together, 
so  as  to 
furnish 

bars  to  the  prison.  You  see  a  little  insect 
caught  in  this  leaf  that  had  lighted  only  on 
its  very  edge.  He  can  not  get  away,  and 
there,  poor  fellow !  he  must  die  a  slow  death. 
Of  what  use  it  is  to  have  such  traps  for  in- 
sects we  do  not  understand. 

This  is  the  leaf  of  the  common  fern  or 
brake.  It  is  beautiful  if  you  examine  it,  for 
it  is  very  delicate.  And  it  has  one  great  pe- 
culiarity. The  flowers  of  the  plant  are  on 
the  under  side  of  the  leaf.  They  are  where 
you  see  the  little  round  spots.  If  you  look 
at  the  leaf  with  a  microscope  you  can  see  the 
different  parts  of  the  flowers. 


MORE   ABOUT    LEAVES.  75 

Thick  leaves  Live-forever.  Ribbon-grass. 

Most  leaves  are  thin,  but  some  are  quite  thick.  This  is  the 
case  with  the  leaves  of  the  India-rubber  tree.  The  wax-plant 
has  thick  leaves,  which,  with  the  flowers,  look  so  waxy  as  to  give 
the  name  to  the  plant.  The  flowers  of  the  cactuses  grow  right 
out  from  the  thick  fleshy  leaves,  making  these  plants  look  very 
awkward,  although  the  flowers  are  so  beautiful.  And  it  is  a  sin- 
gular fact,  that  if  one  of  the  leaves  is  broken  off  and  put  into  the 
ground  it  will  take  root  and  grow. 

Did  you  ever  make  a  blow-bag,  as  it  is  called,  of  the  leaf  of  the 
live-forever,  as  children  very  often  do  ?  If  you  have  not,  I  will 
tell  you  how  it  is  done.  The  leaf  is  rather  thick,  and  is  made  of 
two  layers.  These  you  can  separate  at  the  stem-end  of  the  leaf, 
and  then  by  pinching  the  leaf  and  blowing  into  it  you  can  make 
it  puff  out  like  a  bag.  You  must  do  this  very  carefully,  or  you 
will  break  the  layer  on  the  under  side  of  the  leaf,  which  is  very 
thin,  while  the  upper  layer  is  thick. 

The  leaf  of  the  ribbon-grass,  as  it  is  called,  is  very  singular  in 
one  respect.  It  is  very  prettily  striped,  but  you  can  not  find  any 
two  leaves  that  are  striped  exactly  alike,  any  more  than  you  can 
find  two  faces  exactly  alike  among  all  the  people  on  the  earth. 

Questions. — What  is  said  of  the  beauty  of  common  leaves  ?  Tell  about  the  ribs 
of  leaves.  What  leaves  have  large  ribs  ?  How  is  it  with  the  leaf  of  the  pear  and 
the  orange  ?  What  is  the  difference  between  the  upper  and  the  under  side  of  leaves  ? 
Tell  about  the  grape-leaf.  And  about  the  leaf  of  the  silver-poplar.  What  is  said 
of  the  beauty  of  leaves  as  seen  through  the  microscope  ?  Tell  about  the  leaf  of  the 
side-saddle  flower.  And  about  the  Chinese  pitcher-plant.  Also  about  the  Venus's 
fly-trap.  What  is  said  of  the  leaf  of  the  common  fern?  What  of  thick  leaves? 
What  of  the  leaf  of  live-forever  ?     What  of  ribbon-grass  ? 


76  THE   SAP   IN   LEAVES. 


Wilting  of  leaves  explained. 


CHAPTER  XIX. 

THE    SAP    IN    LEAVES. 

I  have  told  you  about  the  ribs  of  leaves.  Let  us  see  what 
makes  them  so  firm  and  strong.  Look  at  a  large  grape-leaf  on 
the  vine.  It  spreads  out  very  firmly.  If  the  wind  blows  it  very 
hard  it  bends,  but  it  stands  out  again  as  firmly  as  ever.  But 
break  the  leaf  off,  and  see  what  happens.  In  a  little  time  it  wilts. 
If  you  hold  it  up  by  the  stem  its  edges  flop  down  all  around.  The 
leaf  does  not  stand  out  as  it  did  when  it  was  on  the  vine.  The 
ribs  are  all  there,  but  they  have  lost  their  strength.  How  do  you 
think  they  lost  it  ?     I  will  tell  you. 

When  you  broke  off  the  stem,  the  sap  could  no  longer  get  to 
the  leaf.  It  is  just  as  no  water  can  get  into  a  house  when  the 
water-pipe  is  cut  off  outside.  The  sap  goes  to  all  parts  of  the 
leaf  from  the  stem  through  the  ribs.  The  ribs,  like  the  stem, 
have  little  fine  pipes  in  them  for  the  sap  to  run  in.  Now,  if  the 
ribs  are  not  full  of  the  sap  they  are  not  firm,  but  they  bend  easily. 
When  these  ribs  and  the  net-work  between  them  are  not  full  of 
sap  the  leaf  is  wilted,  as  we  say. 

But  when  the  leaf  is  picked  it  is  all  full  of  sap.  How  does  any 
of  the  sap  then  get  out  of  it  so  as  to  make  it  wilt  ?  It  does  not 
leak  out  of  the  stem.  If  it  did,  you  could  see  it  drop  as  you  hold 
the  leaf  up.  Where,  then,  does  it  get  out  ?  This  I  will  explain 
to  you.     There  are  little  holes,  or  pores,  as  they  are  called,  all 


THE   SAP   IN   LEAVES.  77 


The  quantity  of  moisture  that  comes  from  leaves. 


over  the  leaf.  They  are  so  small  that  you  can  not  see  them  with- 
out a  strong  microscope.  The  watery  part  of  the  sap  escapes  into 
the  air  through  these  pores. 

There  is  a  great  deal  of  moisture  that  comes  from  leaves.  You 
can  see  that  this  is  so  if  you  put  a  cluster  of  leaves  under  a  glass 
vessel.  '  A  large  tumbler  will  answer.  You  will,  after  a  little 
time,  see  the  moisture  in  drops  on  the  inside  of  the  glass.  This 
moisture  is  the  water  that  comes  from  the  pores  of  the  leaves. 

You  remember  what  I  told  you  in  the  last  chapter  about  the 
leaf  of  the  pitcher-plant.  The  water  in  that  leaf  comes  from  its 
pores  on  the  inside.  If,  instead  of  its  having  a  pitcher-shape,  the 
leaf  was  laid  open  and  spread  out  like  common  leaves,  the  moist- 
ure would  all  go  off  in  the  air.  But  as  it  is  a  pitcher  with  a 
lid,  the  moisture  that  comes  from  all  the  pores  is  shut  in.  It 
can  not  fly  off  in  the  air.  And  after  a  while  enough  moisture  col- 
lects to  fill  the  pitcher.  This  shows  how  much  water  common- 
ly goes  from  leaves  into  the  air.  If  any  leaf  that  you  see 
spread  out  could  be  changed  into  a  pitcher  or  cup  shape  with  a 
lid,  it  would  in  a  little  time  be  full  of  the  water  that  comes  from 
its  pores. 

Now  you  can  understand  why  a  leaf  wilts  after  it  is  picked. 
It  does  not  wilt  as  soon  as  you  pick  it,  for  the  sap  is  all  in  it 
then.  But  let  it  be  a  little  while.  The  watery  part  of  the  sap  is 
going  out  of  the  pores  of  the  leaf  all  the  time,  and  there  is  no  sap 
coming  to  it  through  the  stem.      So  the  leaf  wilts. 

You  can  keep  a  leaf  from  wilting  for  a  long  time  by  having  the 
stem  in  water.     When  you  do  this  the  water  goes  up  through 


78  THE   SAP    IN    LEAVES. 


Keeping  flowers  from  wilting.  Much  water  in  the  air,  but  not  seen. 

the  little  pipes  in  the  stem.  This  takes  the  place  of  the  water 
that  goes  out  of  the  pores  of  the  leaf. 

When  you  put  flowers  in  water,  you  know  that  the  water  is 
less  the  next  day.  This  is  because  so  much  of  the  water  goes  up 
in  the  stems  to  the  leaves  and  blossoms. 

You  know  that  if  you  have  a  plant  in  a  flower-pot,  the  earth 
gets  dry  in  a  day  or  two.  This  is  chiefly  because  the  water  in 
the  earth  is  sucked  up  by  the  roots,  and  runs  up  all  through  the 
plant,  and  goes  out  of  the  pores  of  the  leaves  and  blossoms.  Some 
of  the  water  goes  up  directly  from  the  earth  into  the  air,  but  most 
of  it  goes  through  the  plant. 

You  can  not  see  the  water  that  comes  out  of  the  leaves  and 
blossoms  into  the  air.  There  is  a  great  deal  of  water  in  the  air 
that  you  can  not  see.  You  have  often  seen  in  a  hot  day  the  wa- 
ter stand  in  drops  on  the  outside  of  your  tumbler.  Just  think 
how  these  drops  come  there.  People  sometimes  say  that  the  tum- 
bler sweats,  just  as  if  the  water  came  through  the  glass.  But 
this,  you  know,  can  not  be.  Water  can  not  get  through  glass. 
The  drops  come  there  in  this  way.  The  cold  water  in  the  tumbler 
makes  the  glass  very  cold.  And  the  water  in  the  warm  air  around 
the  tumbler,  therefore,  gathers  upon  it.  Sometimes  there  is  much 
more  water  in  the  air  than  there  is  at  other  times.  Then  the  tum- 
bler is  very  wet.  Now  a  great  deal  of  the  water  in  the  air  comes 
from  the  leaves  of  the  trees  and  the  plants  all  about  us.  The 
leaves  may  be  said  to  be  breathing  moisture  into  the  air  all  the 
time.  I  shall  tell  you  more  about  the  water  that  is  in  the  air  in 
Part  Third. 


THE   SAP   IN   LEAVES.  79 

Lesson  that  can  be  learned  from  the  leaves. 

This  moisture  that  is  breathed  out  from  the  leaves  makes  the 
air  soft,  while  the  fragrance  of  the  flowers  makes  it  balmy.  Each 
leaf  yields  but  a  little  water,  and  so  does  but  little  good  in  this 
way.  But  there  are  so  many  leaves  that  a  great  deal  of  water 
comes  from  all  of  them.  It  puts  me  in  mind  of  the  Scotch  prov- 
erb, "Many  a  little  makes  a  muckle." 

Those  who  want  to  do  good  in  the  world  may  learn  a  lesson 
from  the  leaves.  A  large  amount  of  good  may  be  done  when  a 
great  many  do  each  a  little.  Let  those  who  can  do  but  little 
think  of  this.  Let  them  do  every  day  what  they  can,  just  as 
each  leaf  does.  Great  men,  that  excite  the  wonder  of  the  world, 
can  do  a  great  deal  of  good ;  but  they  can  not  do  any  thing  like 
as  much  as  is  done  by  a  great  many  together  of  the  people  that 
do  each  a  little  in  a  noiseless  way.  Every  child,  in  doing  little 
kind  things,  may,  like  the  small  leaf,  do  its  part  of  the  good  that 
is  to  be  done  in  the  world.  And  if  much  of  the  good  that  he 
does  is  not  noticed  by  others,  God  sees  it  all,  just  as  he  sees  all 
the  moisture  that  is  breathed  out  by  each  little  leaf. 

Questions. — What  makes  the  ribs  of  leaves  firm  ?  What  happens  to  these  ribs 
when  a  leaf  wilts  ?  How  does  the  watery  part  of  the  sap  get  out  of  a  picked  leaf? 
What  is  said  of  the  quantity  of  water  that  comes  from  leaves  ?  Tell  about  the  water 
in  the  leaf  of  the  pitcher-plant.  How  does  a  picked  leaf  wilt  ?  How  does  putting 
a  leaf  in  water  keep  it  from  wilting  ?  What  makes  the  earth  in  a  flower-pot  be- 
come dry  ?  Can  you  see  the  water  that  goes  into  the  air  from  the  leaves  and  other 
things  ?  Tell  about  water  settling  on  tumblers  in  hot  weather.  What  lesson  can 
we  learn  from  the  leaves  ? 


80  THE    USES    OF   LEAVES. 

Refreshing  moisture  from  leaves.  Their  shade. 


CHAPTER  XX. 

THE    USES    OF   LEAVES. 

One  use  of  leaves,  as  I  told  you  in  the  last  chapter,  is  to  sup- 
ply the  air  with  water.  In  the  hot  weather  the  air  would  "be  very 
dry  and  uncomfortable  to  us  if  the  leaves  did  not  breathe  out 
moisture  from  their  pores.  You  can  see  how  this  is  if  in  a  hot 
day  you  walk  across  a  sandy  plain  where  there  are  no  leaves  ex- 
cept those  of  the  scanty  grass  and  weeds.  Here  no  moisture  is 
breathed  out  upon  you,  to  lessen  the  heat  that  you  suffer  from  the 
burning  sun. 

Another  use  of  the  leaves  is  this.  They  are  pleasant  and  beau- 
tiful to  the  sight.  I  have  told  you  about  this  use  of  them  in  the 
beginning  of  the  seventeenth  chapter. 

Another  use  of  leaves  is  to  give  shade.  We  know  how  re- 
freshing this  is  to  us  in  a  hot  day.  When  in  a  city  we  walk 
through  streets  where  there  are  no  trees,  how  delightful  it  is  to 
come  out  of  the  blazing  sun  into  a  square  that  is  full  of  trees ! 
How  comfortable  are  the  cows  in  the  pasture  lying  under  the 
trees  at  mid-day,  chewing  the  cud ! 

But  the  shade  given  by  leaves  does  good  not  merely  to  man 
and  animals.  It  does  good  to  fruits,  if  there  is  not  too  much  of 
it.  The  sun  would  very  often  be  too  hot  for  the  fruits,  if  it  shone 
full  on  them  all  the  time.      So  the  leaves  partly  shade  them. 

The  chief  use  of  leaves  is  to  keep  plants  and  trees  alive  and 


THE    USES    OF   LEAVES.  81 

The  grape-vine  stripped  of  its  leaves.  Leaves  are  lungs  to  plants. 

make  them  grow.  If  you  should  strip  off  the  leaves  from  a  plant 
as  fast  as  they  came  out,  you  would,  after  a  while,  kill  it.  Some- 
times worms  eat  up  the  leaves  on  trees.  If  this  is  done  year  after 
year  to  a  tree  it  dies.  I  knew  a  man  to  strip  off  all  the  leaves 
from  a  grape-vine.  He  thought  that  it  would  make  the  grapes 
grow  finely.  He  had  seen  people  take  off  some  of  the  "branches 
from  grape-vines,  to  make  the  grapes  grow  large  and  full.  So  he 
thought  that  if  he  took  all  the  leaves  off,  the  sap  would  all  go 
into  the  grapes  and  make  them  very  large.  He  thought,  too,  that 
the  sun  would  make  them  ripen  fast.  But  he  found  that  the 
grapes  stopped  growing,  and  wilted,  and  dropped  off.  There  are 
two  reasons  for  this.  The  sun  was  too  hot  for  the  grapes  when 
all  the  leaves  were  gone.  And  besides,  there  were  some  leaves 
needed  to  keep  the  grapes  alive. 

Leaves  are  the  same  thing  to  plants  that  lungs  are  to  an  animal. 
The  air  that  goes  into  our  lungs  helps  to  keep  us  alive  and  make 
us  grow.  So  the  air  that  is  all  about  the  leaves  of  a  plant  or  tree 
helps  to  keep  it  alive  and  to  make  it  grow.  How  this  is  done  you 
can  not  understand  now.  I  explain  it  in  another  book,  which  you 
will  be  able  to  understand  when  you  are  a  little  older. 

There  is  one  thing  about  this  that  you  can  understand,  which 
is  very  curious.  The  air  does  not  keep  the  plants  alive  just  in 
the  same  way  that  it  does  animals.  You  know  that  by  breathing 
air  we  make  it  bad ;  and  so  we  must  have  all  the  time  a  supp^- 
of  fresh  air.  Now  what  do  you  think  becomes  of  the  bad  part 
of  the  air  that  we  breathe  out  from  the  lungs  ?  The  leaves  all 
around  us  take  it  in.  It  is  good  for  them.  It  makes  them  and 
i  F 


82  THE   USES   OF   LEAVES. 

The  barter  between  lungs  and  leaves.  How  it  is  carried  on  in  winter. 

the  plants  that  they  are  on  grow.  They  then,  like  our  lungs,  are 
all  the  time  taking  in  air  and  giving  out  air.  And  leaves  take 
what  lungs  give,  and  lungs  take  what  leaves  give.  So  lungs 
and  leaves  have  a  sort  of  trade  together.  They  are  always  mak- 
ing this  exchange  with  each  other.  And  it  is  a  good  bargain  for 
both.  Both  get  what  they  want,  and  barter  away  what  they  do 
not  want. 

But  in  winter,  when  the  leaves  are  all  gone  except  those  on  the 
evergreens,  how  is  it  with  this  trade  between  lungs  and  leaves  ? 
Lungs  are  all  the  time  giving  out  bad  air;  but  there  are  not 
leaves  enough  on  the  evergreens  to  take  it  all,  and  give  back  the 
good  air.  Well,  what  is  to  be  done  ?  A  barter  is  carried  on  with 
the  leaves  a  great  way  off  in  the  southern  countries.  The  air 
moves  about  so  freely  that  this  is  easily  done.  The  bad  air  goes 
there,  and  the  leaves  that  take  it  into  their  pores  give  out  the  good 
air,  which  immediately  spreads  every  where,  even  to  us  at  the 
north.  It  is  a  free  trade — as  free  as  air,  as  we  may  say.  There 
is  not  as  much  bad  air  made  by  lungs  in  winter  as  in  summer, 
because  many  animals  are  either  dead  or  torpid.  But  what  is 
made  is  disposed  of  mostly  in  this  way. 

Qaestiojis. — How  are  leaves  useful  to  us  in  giving  out  moisture  to  the  air  ?  What 
use  of  them  is  next  mentioned  ?  What  is  said  of  the  shade  made  by  leaves  ?  Is 
this  shade  useful  to  fruits  ?  What  is  the  chief  use  of  leaves  ?  Tell  about  the  man 
who  stripped  the  leaves  from  his  grape-vine.  How  are  leaves  like  our  lungs  ?  What 
kind  of  barter  is  there  between  leaves  and  the  lungs  of  animals  ?  How  is  this  bar- 
ter carried  on  in  winter  ? 


LEAVES   IN   THE   AUTUMN.  .     83 

The  fall  of  leaves.  Evergreens.  Change  of  color  in  leaves  in  autumn. 


CHAPTER  XXI. 

LEAVES    IN   THE   AUTUMN. 

In  the  autumn  in  cold  climates  the  leaves  fall.  This  is  the 
reason  that  the  autumn  is  called  the  fall  of  the  year.  There  are 
some  trees  that  have  leaves  on  them  all  the  time.  These  are 
called  evergreens.  In  very  hot  climates  the  leaves  of  trees  and 
"bushes  are  out  all  the  year  round.  They  have  no  particular  time 
to  fall.  And  some  leaves  stay  on  for  many  years.  Those  that 
stay  on  so  long  grow  to  be  very  large. 

If  a  tree  or  a  bush  that  has  its  leaves  fall  in  the  autumn  in  a 
cold  climate  be  raised  in  a  warm  climate,  it  will  there  keep  its 
leaves  on  all  the  year.  In  the  southern  parts  of  Europe  quince- 
trees  are  evergreen.  The  currant-bush,  which,  you  know,  with  us 
is  bare  through  the  winter,  in  a  hot  country  has  leaves  on  it  all 
the  year. 

Before  the  leaves  fall,  many  of  them,  you  know,  become  very 
beautifully  colored.  The  variety  of  colors  that  you  see  in  differ- 
ent trees  is  very  pleasing  to  the  eye.  The  maple-leaf  is  colored 
bright  red,  the  oak  a  deep  red,  the  walnut  yellow,  and  other  trees 
have  their  leaves  variously  colored. 

Some  trees  have  their  leaves  change  earlier  than  others,  and 
some  at  first  are  only  partly  changed.  So  you  see  the  green  min- 
gled beautifully  with  the  bright  red,  yellow,  and  other  colors.  I 
have  often  admired  a  single  tree  standing  by  itself  when  it  is 


84  LEAVES   IN   THE   AUTUMN. 

Brilliant  and  varied  beauty  of  the  forests  in  autumn. 

partly  changed.  The  maple  is  particularly  beautiful.  The  top 
generally  changes  first.  You  often  see  the  top  bright  red,  and 
then  the  red  is  mixed  with  the  green  here  and  there  in  other  parts 
of  the  tree.  A  little  way  off  it  looks  as  if  the  top  were  a  cluster 
of  red  flowers.  And  the  other  parts  of  the  tree  look  as  if  the 
flowers  were  coming  out  among  the  green  leaves. 

When  the  sun  shines  brightly  all  the  different  colors  of  the 
leaves  make  the  woods  look  at  a  little  distance  as  if  they  were 
all  covered  with  blossoms.  It  is  a  very  splendid  sight  that  you 
see  when  you  look  off  from  a  high  hill  over  the  woods  on  the  hills 
and  valleys.  It  looks  as  if  monstrous  bouquets  of  flowers  had 
been  stuck  down  thick  together  in  the  ground. 

Such  a  sight  is  especially  splendid  when  the  sun  is  nearly 
down.  Then  the  light  and  shade  vary  the  scene.  Here  you  see 
the  top  of  a  tall  tree  standing  bright  in  the  sun,  while  the  other 
trees  around  are  in  the  shade.  There  you  see  a  whole  cluster  of 
tall  trees  lighted  up  on  one  side.  Here  is  a  shaded  spot^  and 
there,  close  by,  is  a  very  bright  spot,  the  sun  shining  upon  it 
through  some  break  in  a  hill.  The  colors  in  the  lighted  spots 
look  the  brighter  for  the  shaded  spots  near  by. 

So,  too,  it  is  very  beautiful  when,  with  the  sun  overhead,  broken 
clouds  are  passing  quickly  in  the  sky.  The  swift  shadows  of  the 
clouds  give  constant  changes  to  the  scene.  One  shadow  seems 
to  be  chasing  another  over  a  bed  of  flowers. 

When  the  leaves  put  on  these  bright  colors  it  is  the  beginning 
of  their  death.  They  soon  fall  to  the  ground,  and  decay,  and  be- 
come a  part  of  the  earth.      Some  one  has  said  that  flowers  are 


LEAVES    IN   THE   AUTUMN.  85 

What  makes  the  colors  of  the  leaves  in  autumn.  Forests  in  England. 

God's  smiles.  So  we  may  say  that  God  smiles  upon  us  in  the 
dying  leaf,  when  he  makes  it  so  much  like  a  flower. 

How  it  is  that  all  these  different  colors  are  made  in  the  leaves 
in  the  autumn  we  know  not.  It  is  said  that  the  frost  makes 
them,  but  no  one  can  tell  how  it  does  it.  And,  indeed,  it  is  prob- 
ably not  the  frost  alone  that  thus  paints  the  leaves,  for  the  change 
sometimes  begins  before  any  frost  is  perceived.  We  do  not  un- 
derstand how  this  effect  is  produced  any  better  than  we  do  how 
the  various  colors  of  the  flowers  are  made. 

It  is  singular  that  in  England  the  leaves  do  not  appear  in 
these  very  bright  colors  in  autumn,  so  that  an  Englishman  is  as- 
tonished at  the  beauty  of  our  forests  in  that  season  of  the  year. 
Now  why  it  is  that  the  leaves  are  not  affected  there,  in  the  same 
way  that  they  are  here,  we  do  not  know.  It  is  supposed  that  it 
is  because  there  is  more  dampness  there  than  there  is  with  us. 
Whatever  may  be  the  cause,  it  makes  a  great  difference  with  the 
beauty  of  autumnal  scenery.  We  should  hardly  be  willing  to 
exchange  the  brilliancy  of  an  American  October  day  for  the  dull 
colors  presented  by  the  forests  in  England. 

Questions. — Why  is  autumn  called  the  fall  of  the  year  ?  "What  are«evergreens  ? 
What  is  told  about  quince-trees  and  currant-bushes  ?  What  is  said  of  the  colors  of 
leaves  just  before  they  fall  ?  Tell  about  the  maple  as  its  leaves  are  changing.  How 
do  the  forests  look  in  the  bright  sun  when  the  leaves  are  changed  ?  How  do  they 
look  just  before  sundown  ?  How  when  shadows  of  clouds  are  passing  over  them  ? 
What  is  said  about  God's  making  the  dying  leaves  so  much  like  flowers  ?  Do  we 
know  how  the  colors  are  made  in  the  leaves  in  autumn  ?  What  is  said  about  the 
leaves  in  England  ? 


86  LEAF-BUDS. 


Difference  between  leaf-buds  and  flower-buds. 


CHAPTER  XXII. 

LEAF-BUDS. 

Leaves  come  from  buds  just  as  flowers  do.  If  you  look  at  the 
buds  in  the  spring  on  a  tree  you  see  that  they  are  beginning  to 
swell.  They  grow  larger  and  larger,  like  the  buds  that  turn  into 
blossoms.  After  a  while  they  unfold,  and  the  green  leaves  are 
spread  out. 

How  is  it,  you  will  want  to  know,  that  these  leaves  are  made  ? 
They  are  very  different  from  the  leaves  of  the  blossoms  ;  but  they 
are,  like  them,  made  out  of  the  sap.  The  sap  comes  constantly 
to  the  leaf-bud,  just  as  it  does  to  the  flower-bud,  through  the  fine 
pipes  in  the  stem.     And  so  this  sap  is  made  into  leaves. 

There  are,  then,  leaf-buds  and  flower-buds.  You  can  tell  them 
apart  by  their  shapes.  The  flower-buds  are  round  and  short ; 
the  leaf-buds  are  long  and  pointed.  You  can  see  this  difference 
very  plainly  on  a  peach-tree  in  the  spring. 

On  some  trees  the  flower-buds  open  before  the  leaf-buds.  This 
is  the  case  with  some  of  the  maples.  The  red  color  that  makes 
them  look  so  beautiful  in  the  spring,  before  they  have  put  out 
their  leaves,  is  owing  to  the  blossoms  with  which  they  are  cov- 
ered. These  are  quite  small,  and  they  are  very  rich,  if  you  exam- 
ine them  with  a  microscope.  The  flower-buds  of  the  peach-trees 
also  open  before  the  leaf-buds,  and  some  of  them  are  veiy  splendid 
with  their  multitudes  of  pink  blossoms. 


LEAF-BUDS.  87 


Leaves  and  flowers  from  the  same  buds.  Buds  of  the  horse-chestnut  and  grape-vine. 

There  is  sometimes  another  kind  of  buds.  There  are  "buds 
from  which  both  leaves  and  flowers  are  formed.  You  see  this 
in  the  lilac.  The  leaves  first  spread  out  from  the  bud,  and  then 
in  the  midst  of  the  leaves  comes  out  a  cluster  of  flowers.  When 
we  see  all  these  leaves  and  blossoms,  and  remember  the  bud,  we 
wonder  that  so  much  can  come  out  of  so  little  a  bud  as  this 
was. 

This  seems  very  wonderful  when  we  see  it  in  the  horse-chest- 
nut. I  have  often  watched  from  day  to  day  the  buds 
of  this  tree  as  they  were  opening.  You  see  at  first  a 
small  bud  covered  with  brown  scales.  It  grows  larger 
and  larger  day  after  day,  and  after  a  while  appears  as 
you  see  it  here.  Soon  you  see  it  open  and  the  leaves 
push  out.  But  they  are  all  folded  up.  You  see  them 
unfold  more  and  more  every  day.  After  a  while  there  is 
a  tall  stalk  with  leaves  having  long  stems.  Then  comes 
a  large  cluster  of  blossoms  at  the  top  of  this  stalk. 

You  can  see  the  same  thing  in  the  grape-vine.  The 
grape-stalk  looks  in  winter  as  if  it  were  a  dead  stick. 
It  does  not  look  as  if  any  thing  living  could  come  out 
from  it.  But  in  the  spring  you  see  little  buds  starting 
out  here  and  there.  Watch  one  of  these  buds.  You  will  see  it 
swell,  and  after  a  while  leaves  will  unfold  from  it.  And  you  will 
see  what  comes  from  the  bud  is  not  leaves  alone.  It  is  a  branch 
with  leaves  on  it.  After  a  while  clusters  of  blossoms  appear 
among  the  leaves,  filling  the  air  with  their  fragrance.  Then 
grapes  form.     The  branch  goes  on  to  grow,  and  gets  to  be  many 


88 


LEAF-BUDS. 


The  unfolding  of  plants  from  buds. 


Rock-saxifrage. 


feet  long  by  the  time  the  grapes  are  ripe.     All  this  comes  from 
the  little  bud,  and  is  made  out  of  the  sap. 

Now  suppose  you  could  see  all  this  happen  while  you  stand 
looking  at  the  vine.  Suppose  you  could  see  the  bud  swell,  then 
the  leaves  push  out,  then  the  flowers  form,  then  the  grapes,  and 
then  see  the  whole  grow  while  the  grapes  are  growing  and  ripen- 
ing. You  would  think  this  very  wonderful.  But  it  is  just  as 
wonderful  to  have  all  this  done  slowly.  The  great  wonder  is  that 
it  is  done  at  all.  No  one  but  God  could  make  all  this  come  from 
a  bud.     And  he  could  do  it  in  an  hour  as  well  as  in  several 

weeks  if  he  thought  it  was  best. 

This  unfolding  of  plants  is  very 
beautiful  and  interesting.  I  have 
often  watched  it  in  the  rock-saxi- 
frage, one  of  the  wild  flowers  of 
spring.  I  have,  for  this  purpose, 
taken  it  up  with  a  little  earth  around 
it,  when  it  was  nothing  but  a  small 
bud  peeping  up  out  of  the  ground, 
and  have  put  it  into  a  saucer.  As 
I  watched  it  from  day  to  day  the 
bud  spread  out  into  leaves.  Then 
came  up  a  little  stalk  out  of  the 
midst  of  the  cluster  of  leaves,  and 
on  the  end  of  the  stalk  appeared  a 
great  many  little  white  flowers. 
You  see  the  same  thing  in  the 


LEAF-BUDS.  89 


English  cowslip.  The  crown  of  the  crown-imperial. 


English  cowslip,  which  is  represented  at  the  bottom  of  the  op- 
posite page.  All  this  came  from  a  little  bud,  just  as  it  is  with 
the  rock-saxifrage.  That  curious  but  elegant  plant,  the  crown-im- 
perial, unfolds  in  a  little  different  way.  A  stalk  comes  up  in  the 
midst  of  the  leaves  ;  but  as  it  grows  up  leaves  come  out  from  the 
stalk.  When  it  is  fully  grown,  and  in  blossom,  the  whole  plant 
presents  a  singular  but  splendid  appearance.  The  long  pointed 
leaves  stand  out  around  the  tall,  straight  stalk  for  some  way  up. 
Then  the  stalk  is  naked  for  as  much  as  the  length  of  two  fingers, 
and  on  the  top  is  a  crown  of  leaves  and  flowers,  the  flowers  hang- 
ing down.     It  is  very  well  named  the  crown-imperial. 

But  there  are  jewels  in  this  crown  that  most  people  do  not  see. 
They  are  to  be  seen  only  by  looking  up  into  the  flower.  In  each 
leaf  of  the  flower  where  it  joins  on  to  the  stem  there  is  a  beautiful 
little  shallow  cup  which  is  very  white.  From  this  cup  hangs  a 
shining  drop,  like  a  tear.  The  whiteness  of  the  cup  gives  the 
drop  a  rich  pearly  color.  It  seems,  as  you  look  up  into  the  flow- 
er, as  if  there  were  six  splendid  pearls  fastened  there. 

Each  cup  always  has  this  drop  hanging  from  it.  If  you  put 
up  something  which  will  soak  it  up,  there  will  soon  be  another 
one  forrrfW.  there.     These  drops  are  the  honey  of  the  flower. 

Questions. — "What  do  leaves  come  from?  What  are  they  made  of?  How  can 
you  tell  the  difference  between  flower-buds  and  leaf-buds  ?  Mention  some  trees  on 
which  the  flower-buds  open  before  the  leaf-buds.  What  is  said  about  another  kind 
of  buds  ?  Tell  about  the  lilac — the  horse-chestnut — the  grape-vine.  Would  it  be 
any  more  wonderful  if  the  unfolding  of  the  buds  of  the  grape-vine  were  done  in  a 
shorter  time  ?  Tell  about  the  rock-saxifrage — the  English  cowslip — the  crown-im- 
perial.    What  is  very  curious  and  beautiful  in  the  crown-imperial  ? 


90  THE  COVERINGS  OF  THE  BUDS. 

Scales  of  the  horse-chestnut  bud.  Treasures  in  the  buds  in  winter. 


CHAPTER  XXIII. 

THE   COVERINGS   OF   THE   BUDS. 

You  remember  that  I  mentioned  to  you  the  brown  scales  on 
the  buds  of  the  horse-chestnut.  I  will  tell  you  what  these  scales 
are  for :  they  cover  up  the  tender  bud  from  the  cold  of  winter  and 
early  spring.  These  scales  are  quite  thick,  as  you  can  see.  They 
are  glued  together,  too,  quite  tightly  by  a  sticky  substance.  They 
make  in  this  way  a  close  little  case  for  the  bud,  to  keep  it  snug 
from  the  cold  air.  When  the  weather  gets  warm  enough  the 
swelling  bud  pushes  the  scales  apart.  And  when  the  leaves  are 
out  these  scales  drop  off,  because  there  is  no  more  use  for  them. 

In  cold  climates  the  buds  are  always  protected  in  this  way  by 
a  covering.  The  buds  that  you  see  in  the  spring  do  not  begin  in 
the  spring.  They  are  formed  the  year  before,  a  little  while  before 
the  leaves  begin  to  fall.  And  as  they  form  they  loosen  the  leaves, 
and  soon  push  them  off. 

Now  in  these  little  buds  are  locked  up  all  the  leaves  and  flow- 
ers that  are  to  come  out  the  next  spring.  The  preciou#treasures 
of  another  year  are  in  these  buds.  They  must  be  kept  safe,  then, 
through  the  cold  winter.  And  so  they  have  tight  coverings  to 
guard  them  from  the  cold.  They  are  all  this  time  quite  small, 
but  they  are  ready  to  grow  whenever  the  warm  weather  comes. 
If  you  should  pick  off  the  covering  of  one  of  these  buds  in  the 
winter  the  cold  air  would  freeze  it,  and  it  would  die. 


THE  COVERINGS  OF  THE  BUDS.  91 

The  care  which  the  Creator  takes  of  buds  in  the  winter. 

These  coverings  have  been  called  by  some  one  the  "winter- 
cradles"  of  the  buds.  It  is  a  very  good  name  for  them.  The 
little  buds  in  these  cradles  rock  back  and  forth  in  the  cold  winds 
of  winter,  and  are  as  secure  from  harm  as  the  little  baby  in  its 
cradle  in  its  nice  warm  home,  shut  in  from  the  wintry  blasts. 

And  notice  another  thing.  The  inside  of  these  cradles  is  lined 
with  a  soft  down.  This  is  the  bud's  little  blanket  to  keep  it 
warm  in  its  cradle. 

In  warm  climates  the  buds  do  not  have  these  "  winter-cradles," 
for  there  is  no  need  of  them.  The  buds  of  the  orange-tree  and 
lemon-tree  have  no  coverings. 

It  is  thus  that  God  takes  care  of  the  tender  bud.  He  always 
gives  it  a  covering  when  it  needs  one  to  keep  it  from  the  cold. 
But  in  the  sunny  south  he  leaves  the  bud  naked  to  the  pleasant 
warm  air.  To  put  a  thick  covering  over  it  there  would  do  it 
harm.  It  would  be  like  a  man's  putting  on  a  heavy  overcoat  in 
mid-summer. 

Questions. — What  is  said  of  the  scales  of  the  horse-chestnut  bad  ?  What  is  said 
of  the  buds  in  cold  climates  ?  Why  is  it  very  necessary  to  have  the  buds  kept  safe 
through  the  winter?  What  very  good  name  has  been  given  to  the  coverings  of 
buds  ?  How  is  it  with  the  buds  in  warm  climates  ?  What  is  said  of  the  care  which 
God  takes  of  buds  ? 


92  WHAT   ROOTS   ARE   FOR. 

The  business  of  roots.  Mouths  in  their  fibreg. 


CHAPTER  XXIV. 

WHAT   ROOTS   ARE    FOR. 

When  a  seed  sprouts,  the  root,  I  have  told  you,  goes  down 
into  the  ground,  while  the  stalk  goes  upward  into  the  air.  The 
root  goes  down  because  the  food  of  the  plant  is  in  the  ground.  It 
is  the  business  of  the  root  to  suck  up  this  food,  so  that  the  plant 
may  be  nourished  and  grow.  The  root  is,  then,  a  sort  of  stomach 
to  the  plant.  If  it  had  no  root  it  would  not  grow,  any  more  than 
you  would  if  you  had  no  stomach  to  put  your  food  in. 

The  root  has  little  mouths  in  its  branches  every  where.  It 
is  by  these  that  the  food  of  the  plant  is  sucked  up.  They  are  so 
small  that  you  can  not  see  them  without  a  powerful  microscope. 
They  are  in  the  fine  parts  or  fibres  of  the  root  that  you  see  hang- 
ing to  the  main  branches  of  it  when  you  take  up  a  root.  We  are 
very  careful  not  to  break  off  these  fibres  when  we  take  up  a  plant 
or  tree  to  set  it  out  again  in  another  place ;  for  the  more  of  these 
little  mouths  there  are,  the  more  likely  will  it  be  to  live.  If  all 
the  fibres  be  broken  off  from  the  root  the  plant  can  not  live,  be- 
cause there  are  no  mouths  to  suck  up  the  food.  It  will  die  just 
as  you  would  if  you  should  stop  eating. 

As  there  are  little  mouths  all  over  the  fibres  of  a  root,  there 
must  be  a  multitude  of  them.  You  can  not  count  them  any 
more  than  you  can  count  the  sands  on  the  sea-shore.  These 
mouths  drink  up  a  fluid  from  the  ground.     This  fluid  is  the  sap 


WHAT   ROOTS    ARE   FOR.  93 

Mouths  in  roots  choose  what  they  will  suck  up. 

that  goes  up  in  the  stalk  to  nourish  the  plant.  Every  thing  in 
the  plant — the  leaves,  the  flowers,  the  fruit — is  made,  as  I  have 
told  you  before,  from  the  sap  that  the  root  sucks  up. 

These  mouths  do  not  suck  up  exactly  the  same  thing  in  all 
roots.  The  sap  of  one  plant  differs  some  from  that  of  another 
plant.  What  the  root  of  a  pepper-plant  sucks  up  is  not  the  same 
with  what  is  sucked  up  by  the  root  of  a  strawberry-plant.  The 
root  of  the  pepper-plant  sucks  up  such  sap  that  the  biting  peppers 
can  be  made  out  of  it.  And  the  root  of  the  strawberry-plant 
sucks  up  sap  that  is  fitted  to  make  its  pleasant  fruit. 

The  pepper-plant  and  the  strawberry-plant  are  so  different  from 
each  other,  that  we  should  hardly  suppose  that  they  could  grow 
out  of  the  same  earth  side  by  side.  But  they  can.  How  is  this  ? 
Do  the  little  mouths  in  the  roots  choose  their  food?  They  do. 
The  strawberry  mouths  choose  what  will  make  strawberries,  and 
the  pepper  mouths  choose  what  will  make  peppers.  But  they  do 
not  choose  in  the  same  way  that  we  choose.  They  do  not  think 
about  it  as  we  do.  But  they  choose  just  as  well  as  if  they  did 
think.  Perhaps  they  choose  better  than  we  do.  We  sometimes 
make  mistakes  about  our  food.  But  they  always  choose  just 
right.  How  this  is  we  do  not  know.  God  has  made  them  in 
such  a  way  that  they  suck  up  the  right  kind  of  food  from  the 
earth.     This  is  all  that  we  know  about  it. 

Very  commonly  different  kinds  of  plants  will  grow  in  the  same 
kind  of  earth.  What  a  variety  of  plants  and  trees  you  often  see 
in  the  same  garden !  But  sometimes  one  plant  requires  a  differ- 
ent soil  from  other  plants.     You  see  this  in  the  asparagus.     This 


94  WHAT   ROOTS   ARE    FOR. 

Asparagus  roots  like  salted  food.  Flowers  in  swamps. 

vegetable  does  best  in  a  soil  tliat  has  considerable  salt  in  it ;  that 
is,  it  thrives  on  salt  food,  as  we  may  say.  For  this  reason  we 
sprinkle  salt  over  an  asparagus-bed  in  the  spring. 

But  while  salt  makes  the  asparagus  grow  so  well,  it  will  kill 
other  plants.  It  will  kill  all  the  weeds  and  grass  that  happen  to 
be  in  the  asparagus-bed.  If  you  put  on  a  good  deal  of  salt  no 
weeds  will  come  up  till  after  all  the  salt  is  sucked  up  by  the  aspar- 
agus. I  had  a  chance  last  spring  to  see  how  bad  salt  is  for  grass. 
The  man  who  put  the  salt  on  my  asparagus-bed  spilled  some  of 
it  on  a  grassplot  close  by.  In  every  spot  where  it  fell  it  killed 
the  grass.  So  you  see  what  is  poison  to  grass  is  food  to  aspar- 
agus. 

We  find  some  kinds  of  flowers  always  in  swamps.  These  will 
not  grow  well  in  the  high  grounds  where  the  soil  is  different. 
The  reason  is,  that  the  little  mouths  in  the  roots  do  not  find  the 
right  kind  of  food  there. 

Questions. — How  is  the  root  a  sort  of  stomach  to  a  plant  ?  Where  are  the  little 
mouths  of  the  root  ?  What  is  said  about  care  in  moving  plants  or  trees  ?  What  is 
said  of  the  number  of  mouths  in  a  root,  and  of  their  size  ?  Do  the  roots  of  the 
pepper-plant  and  the  strawberry-plant  suck  up  the  same  kind  of  food  ?  What  is 
said  of  the  mouths  of  roots  choosing  their  food  from  the  ground  ?  Tell  about  the 
asparagus.     What  is  said  of  plants  growing  in  swamps  ? 


MORE    ABOUT   ROOTS. 


95 


Branching  roots. 


Fibrous  roots. 


CHAPTER  XXV. 


MORE    ABOUT    ROOTS. 


not  much  to  be  supported,  the 
root  is  different.  It  is  perhaps 
made  up  of  fibres  as  seen  in  this 
figure.  This  is  the  case  with  the 
roots  of  grass,  as  you  can  see  by 
pulling  up  some  of  it.  In  a  piece 
of  turf  there  are  a  great  many  spires 
of  grass,  and  so  it  is  full  of  these 
'fibrous  roots  mingled  together. 

Some  roots  are  made  for  another 
purpose  still.     Besides  nourishing 


The  root,  besides  being  a 
sort  of  stomach  to  the  plant, 
is  its  support.  The  plant  is 
fastened  by  it  firmly  in  the 
ground.  For  this  reason  a 
large  tree  has  a  large  and  deep 
root.  Its  root  branches  out 
very  much  as  the  tree  does 
above.  It  is  shaped  as  you 
see  here.  But  when  the  plant 
is  quite  small,  and  there  is 


96 


MORE   ABOUT   ROOTS. 


Beets  and  turnips. 


the  plant  and  supporting  it,  the  root  sometimes  answers  for  food. 
When  a  root  is  intended  for  this  use  it  is  large.  Look 
at  the  root  of  the  beet.  Here  is  a  figure  of  it.  The 
plant  does  not  need  so  large  a  root  as  this  to  nourish 
and  support  it.  The  plant  is  nothing  but  a  bunch  of 
leaves,  and  with  a  very  small  root  it  would  stand  up  in 
the  ground.  A  small  root,  too,  would  answer  to  suck 
up  all  the  sap  that  it  needs.  So  small  a  plant  could 
get  along  with  a  very  small  stomach. 

You  remember  that  in  the  chapter  on  seeds  I  told 
you  that  the  seed-holder  is  sometimes  larger  than  it 
need  to  be  to  hold  the  seeds.  The  pear  is  a  seed-holder, 
but  it  is  larger  than  it  need  to  be  if  it  was  meant  to  be 
only  a  seed-holder.  It  is  meant  to  be  something  else. 
It  is  fruit  to  bo  eaten  as  well  as  a  seed-holder.  It 
answers  two  purposes.  So,  too,  when  a  root  is  larger 
than  it  need  to  be  to  nourish  the  plant, 


it  answers  two  purposes.  Besides  sucking  up 
food  for  the  plant,  it  answers  as  food  for  animals. 
In  these  large  roots  the  mouths  that  suck  up 
the  sap  are  not  in  the  body  of  the  root.  They 
are  in  the  little  fibres  that  are  joined  on  to  the 
main  root,  as  you  see  in  the  beet.  In  the  root 
of  the  turnip,  as  seen  in  this  figure,  there  is  a 
sort  of  tail  going  down  into  the  ground  from  the 
bottom  of  it.  The  fibres,  where  the  mouths  are, 
make  a  part  of  this  tail. 


MORE    ABOUT   ROOTS. 


97 


Runners. 


Roots  of  dahlias. 


Bulbs. 


In  some  plants  roots  are  formed  very  curiously.  Shoots  start 
out  and  run  along  on  the  ground.  After  a  little  while  these  run- 
ners, as  they  are  called, 
send  down  roots  into  the 
ground,  as  is  here  repre- 
sented. The  strawberry, 
you  know,  spreads  in  this 
way.  So  do  the  verbenas.  When  a  runner  gets  fairly  rooted  it 
can  live  by  itself,  for  it  has  a  root,  that  is,  a  stomach  of  its  own. 
You  can  separate  it  now  from  the  main  plant  if  you  choose,  and 
set  it  out  somewhere  else.  This  is  done  whenever  we  plant  a  new 
strawberry-bed. 

This  is  a  singular  kind  of  root.  It  is  spread 
out  like  a  hand.  Each  of  these  fingers  can  be 
separated  from  the  rest,  and  will  grow  by  itself. 
The  roots  of  the  dahlias  are  of  this  kind. 

Some  roots  are  bulbs,  as  they  are  called.  The 
onion  is  a  bulbous  root.  Below  is  one  cut  open. 
You  see  that  it  is  all  made  up  of  coats,  one  inside 

of  another,  which  you  can  peel  off.  The  roots  of 
hyacinths,  lilies,  blue-bells,  and  crocuses,  are  bulbs. 
These  lie  in  the  earth  very  still  through  all  the 
winter.  The  life  in  them  is  asleep,  just  as  it  is  in 
the  buds.  But  it  wakes  up  in  the  spring,  and 
down  go  the  roots  from  the  bottom  of  the  bulbs, 
and  up  come  the  plants  from  their  tops.  It  is 
sometimes  said  that  a  bulb  is  really  a  bud,  only  it 
Q 


98 


MORE   ABOUT    ROOTS. 


Slips  of  plants. 


Duck-meat. 


is  in  the  ground,  instead  of  being  in  the  air  as  most  buds  are. 
Thus  the  onion  is  a  bud,  and  the  real  roots  of  the  plant  are  what 
you  see  branching  down  from  the  bottom  of  the  bulb. 

You  have  heard  people  talk  about  setting  out  slips.  A  slip  is 
a  branch  of  a  plant.  Some  plants  will  grow  from  slips.  Gera- 
niums will.  If  you  put  a  slip  of  geranium  into  the  ground  and 
keep  it  well  watered,  a  root  will  shoot  down  into  the  earth  from 
the  end  of  the  stem.  And  so  the  cut  off  branch  becomes  a  grow- 
ing plant.  Before  it  was  cut  off  it  got  its  food  with  the  other 
branches  from  the  root  of  the  plant  to  which  it  belonged.  After 
it  was  cut  off  it  could  not  live  unless  it  could  get  a  root  of  its 
own  to  suck  up  its  food  from  the  ground. 

Most  plants  get  their  food  from  the  ground.  But  some  do  not. 
Some  get  their  food  from  water.  This  is  the  case  with  a  plant 
called  duck-meat,  that  is  found  in  ponds  and  ditches  where  the  wa- 
ter is  still.  You  see  little  leaves  on  the 
surface  of  the  water,  and  the  roots  han^  like 
P=-  threads  from  the  leaves.  This  is  repre- 
sented in  this  figure.  Now  there  is  some- 
thing in  the  water  in  these  places  which  is 
sucked  up  by  these  roots  and  makes  the 
leaves  grow.  Sea-weed  has  no  roots  extending  down  into  the 
ground,  but  it  gets  its  nourishment  from  the  water. 

There  are  some  plants  that  live  on  other  plants.  The  mosses 
that  you  see  on  trees  are  plants  of  this  kind.  At  the  South  there 
is  a  kind  of  gray  moss  that  hangs  down  from  the  branches  of 
trees,  sometimes  to  a  great  length.     It  makes  the  land  look  as  if 


MORE   ABOUT    ROOTS.  99 


Hanging  moss.  Dodder,  or  love-vine. 

they  were  hung  in  mourning.  The  sap  that  nourishes  this  plant 
it  gets  from  the  bark  of  the  trees.  There  are  mouths  in  the  moss 
where  it  hangs  from  the  tree  that  suck  in  the  sap  which  they  find 
there. 

The  dodder,  or  love-vine,  is  a  curious  plant.  It  lives  on  other 
plants.  It  comes  up  out  of  the  ground  and  clings  to  any  plant 
that  happens  to  he  near  it.  After  it  is  well  fastened,  and  has 
grown  considerably,  its  root  in  the  ground  dies.  The  little  vine 
does  not  need  it  any  longer,  for  it  clings  by  real  roots  to  the  plant 
up  which  it  runs.  This  is  the  reascfn  that  it  is  called  love-vine ; 
for,  like  love,  it  lives  on  that  to  which  it  clings.  This  vine  has 
no  leaves,  and  it  is  of  a  bright-yellow  color.  So  it  is  sometimes 
called  gold-thread  vine. 

Questions. — What  is  said  about  the  root  as  a  support  for  a  tree  ?  How  is  it  with 
the  roots  of  grass  ?  What  is  said  about  roots  that  are  for  food  ?  Tell  about  the 
root  of  the  beet.  Give  the  comparison  made  between  roots  and  seed-holders.  What 
is  said  of  the  root  of  the  turnip  ?  What  of  the  roots  of  strawberries  and  verbenas  ? 
What  of  the  roots  of  dahlias  ?  What  is  said  of  bulbs  ?  How  do  plants  grow  from 
slips  ?  What  is  said  about  the  duck-meat  ?  What  is  said  of  mosses  ?  Tell  about 
the  dodder. 


100  STALKS    AND   TRUNKS. 


Trunks  of  trees.  Stalks  of  grain  and  grass  have  flint  in  them. 


CHAPTER  XXVI. 

STALKS    AND    TRUNKS. 

"We  speak  of  plants  as  having  stalks,  and  of  trees  as  having 
trunks.  A  tree  has  a  stout  firm  trunk,  because  its  top  is  so  large 
and  heavy.  Its  branches  spread  out  so  much,  that  the  tree  would 
be  broken  down  by  the  wind  if  it  did  not  have  a  strong  trunk. 

It  is  the  woody  part  of  the" trunk  that  is  so  strong.  The  stalks 
of  plants  have  no  wood  in  them,  because  they  do  not  need  it. 
They  are  strong  enough  to  support  the  branches  without  having 
any  wood  in  them. 

Some  plants  have  their  stalks  made  strong  in  a  singular  way. 
There  is  a  flinty  earth  in  them.  This  is  the  case  with  wheat,  and 
rye,  and  most  kinds  of  grass.  See  how  tall  the  stalk  of  rye  or 
wheat  is.  And  it  is  very  slender.  But  as  the  wind  bends  it 
over  it  does  not  break,  because  the  flint  in  it  makes  it  so  strong. 

It  is  this  flint  in  different  kinds  of  straws  that  fits  them  to  be 
used  in  making  hats  and  bonnets.  They  would  not  be  firm 
enough  for  this  use  if  there  was  no  flint  in  them. 

You  can  not  see  or  feel  the  flint  in  the  straw.  The  reason  is, 
that  the  particles  of  the  flint  are  so  fine,  and  are  so  well  mixed 
up  with  the  fibres  or  threads  of  the  straw.  It  is  this  fine  flint  in 
straw  that  makes  its  ashes  so  useful  in  polishing  marble.  In  some 
plants  you  can  feel  the  roughness  that  is  made  by  the  flint.  You 
can  feel  it  in  the  scouring-rush,  which  is  sometimes  used  by  house- 


STALKS   AND   TRUNKS.  101 


How  flint  gets  into  stalks.  Shrubs.  Vines. 

keepers  in  scouring.  In  this  there  is  more  of  the  stony  substance 
than  there  is  in  the  straw  of  your  hat,  and  it  is  not  as  fine. 

But  you  will  ask  how  stone  or  flint  gets  into  these  plants.  It 
is  sucked  up  from  the  ground  by  the  mouths  in  the  roots,  and  it 
goes  up  in  the  sap  to  where  it  is  wanted.  It  is  wanted  in  the 
stalk  of  the  grain,  and  so  it  stops  there.  It  never  makes  a  mis- 
take by  going  into  the  kernels  of  the  grain.  If  it  did,  the  flour 
that  is  made  from  them  would  be  gritty,  as  we  should  find  out 
when  we  came  to  eat  the  bread. 

All  plants  that  have  no  wood  in  their  stalks  die  down  to  the 
ground  in  the  autumn,  though  the  roots  of  some  of  them  live 
through  the  winter.  But  trees,  you  know,  remain  from  year  to 
year.  So  do  shrubs  and  bushes.  These  may  be  considered  as 
little  trees.  Some  shrubs  are  so  small  that  they  do  not  need  to 
have  their  stalks  woody  merely  to  support  the  branches.  Thus 
the  currant-bush  could  have  its  branches  well  supported  if  the 
stalks  were  not  woody.  In  such  cases  the  stalks  are  made  woody 
so  that  they  may  last  over  the  winter. 

Stalks  and  trunks  commonly  stand  up  of  themselves.  But 
there  are  some  that  can  not.  When  this  is  so  we  call  the  plant 
a  vine.  Vines  are  supported  in  various  ways.  Some  are  held  up 
by  merely  winding  around  something.  This  is  true  of  the  bean- 
vine.  It  winds  itself,  as  it  grows,  around  the  pole  that  is  put  up 
for  it.  The  hop-vine  is  supported  in  the  same  way.  It  is,  you 
know,  quite  rough,  and  so  it  can  cling  firmly  even  to  quite  a 
smooth  pole. 

Pea-vines  are  held  up  in  a  different  way.     Little  tendrils  are 


102  STALKS   AND    TRUNKS. 


Tendrils.  Thunbergia.  Trumpet-creeper. 

put  forth  which  wind  around  the  branches  of  the  bushes  that  are 
set  for  the  vines  to  run  up  on.  These  tendrils  clasp  very  tightly. 
You  see  them  on  many  kinds  of  vines.  You  see  them  on  grape- 
vines, and  on  the  vine  of  the  passion-flower.  Sometimes  the  ten- 
drils go  out  from  the  ends  of  the  leaves.  You  see  a  leaf  of  this 
kind  on  page  68. 

A  vine  called  thunbergia  is  held  up  in  a  very  queer  manner. 
If  a  leaf  happens  to  come  near  a  twig  or  a  string  it  twists  its  stem 
around  it.  So  the  stems  of  the  leaves  act  as  tendrils  to  support 
the  vine. 

The  vine  of  the  trumpet-creeper  is  supported  in  a  singular  way. 
Whenever  it  touches  any  thing  there  come  out  at  the  joints  of  the 
stalks  some  sprawling  things  like  the  feet  of  a  spider.  These 
feet  fasten  themselves  very  strongly  to  whatever  the  vine  is  run- 
ning on.  If  it  runs  up  the  side  of  a  board  fence,  these  feet  mix  up 
their  fibres  very  tightly  with  the  fibres  of  the  wood.  It  is  curi- 
ous to  observe  that  where  any  part  of  the  vine  is  not  against  any 
thing  these  feet  do  not  appear.  They  are  made  only  where  they 
can  be  used.  The  plant  acts  just  as  if  it  knew  where  it  could 
use  them. 

Questions. — What  is  the  difference  between  stalks  and  trunks  ?  Why  does  a  tree 
need  so  strong  a  trunk  ?  Why  do  the  stalks  of  plants  have  no  wood  in  them  ? 
What  is  said  of  the  flinty  earth  that  is  in  some  of  them  ?  In  what  ways  is  the  flint 
in  straws  of  use  ?  What  is  said  of  the  scouring-rush  ?  How  does  flint  get  into  any 
plant  ?  Why  does  it  not  go  into  the  kernels  of  grain  as  well  as  into  the  stalks  ? 
What  becomes  of  stalks  that  are  not  woody  in  the  winter  ?  What  is  said  of  the 
woody  stalks  of  shrubs  ?  What  are  vines  ?  How  is  the  bean-vine  supported  ?  Tell 
about  tendrils.  What  is  said  of  the  thunbergia?  Describe  the  way  in  which  the 
trumpet-creeper  is  supported. 


THE  BARK  OF  TREES  AND  SHRUBS.  103 


The  cuter  hark  of  a  tree  its  coat. 


CHAPTER  XXVII. 

THE  BARK  OF  TREES  AND  SHRUBS. 

In  the  trunk  of  a  tree  or  the  stalk  of  a  shrub  there  are  three 
parts.     They  are  the  bark,  the  wood,  and  the  pith. 

The  bark  is  not  all  one  thing.  It  is  made  up  of  two  parts ; 
or  rather,  we  should  say,  there  are  two  barks.  There  is  an  outer 
bark  and  an  inner  one.  The  outer  bark  has  no  life  in  it.  It  is 
this  outer  bark  that  gives  such  a  roughness  to  the  trunks  of  some 
trees,  as  the  elm  and  the  oak.  In  the  birch,  you  can  peel  off  this 
bark  in  strips  right  around  the  trunk  of  the  tree.  Indians  make 
very  pretty  boxes  of  these  strips  of  birch-bark. 

The  outer  bark  is  a  coat  for  the  tree.  It  covers  up  the  living 
parts  so  that  they  shall  not  be  injured.  It  does  for  the  tree  what 
our  clothes  do  for  our  bodies.  It  is  not  a  perfectly  tight  coat.  It 
has  little  openings  every  where  in  it.  It  would  be  bad  for  the 
tree  to  have  this  coat  on  it  tight,  just  as  it  would  be  bad  for  our 
bodies  to  have  an  India-rubber  covering  close  to  the  skin. 

This  outer  bark  is  a  great  protection  to  the  tree  through,  the 
cold  winter.  It  keeps  the  cold  from  killing  the  trunk  and  the 
branches.  This  coat  of  the  tree  covers  it  all,  even  out  to  the  end 
of  the  smallest  twig.  The  tree  looks  as  if  it  was  dead  in  winter 
without  its  green  leaves.  But  there  is  life  locked  up  there,  just  as 
I  told  you  there  is  in  the  seed  that  is  kept  through  the  winter. 
The  life  in  the  tree  is  asleep  as  it  is  in  the  seed.     It  is  ready  to 


104  THE    BARK    OF   TREES   AND    SHRUBS. 


The  inner  bark.  Trees  sometimes  covered  with  straw  in  winter. 

be  waked  up  when  the  warm  weather  of  the  spring  shall  come. 
During  this  winter's  sleep  of  the  tree,  the  living  inner  bark  and 
wood  are  safe,  covered  up  by  the  tree's  rough  coat. 

If  you  peel  off  the  outer  bark,  as  you  can  very  easily  in  the 
birch,  you  come  to  the  fresh  and  juicy  inner  bark.  This  I  have 
told  you  is  alive.  It  is  full  of  sap.  It  has  a  good  deal  to  do 
with  the  growth  of  the  tree.  It  is  by  this  bark  that  the  wood  in- 
side of  it  is  made. 

You  have  sometimes  seen  small  trees  covered  in  the  winter 
with  straw  tied  nicely  all  around  them.  This  is  because  they  are 
tender  trees  that  are  not  used  to  our  cold  weather.  They  belong 
to  a  warmer  climate,  and  God  gave  them  just  such  a  coat  as  they 
needed  there.  And  when  we  undertake  to  have  such  trees  here 
at  the  north,  the  coat  that  God  has  given  them  is  not  enough  to 
keep  them  from  freezing  in  our  long,  cold  winters.  So  we  have 
to  put  another  coat  on  over  it. 

Questions. — What  are  the  parts  of  the  trunk  of  a  tree  ?  Tell  about  the  bark. 
What  is  the  outside  hark  for  ?  How  much  of  the  tree  does  it  cover  and  protect  ? 
What  is  said  of  the  life  asleep  in  the  trees  in  the  winter  ?  What  is  said  of  the  in- 
ner bark?     Why  is  straw  tied  around  some  trees  in  winter? 


THE    WOOD    IN    TREES   AND   SHEUBS.  105 

How  wood  is  made.  Its  layers.  Pipes  in  the  wood  for  the  sap. 


CHAPTER  XXVIII. 

THE    WOOD    IN   TREES   AND    SHRUBS. 

Perhaps  it  seemed  strange  to  you  when  I  said  in  the  last  chap- 
ter that  bark  makes  wood.  But  so  it  is.  Every  year  the  living 
inner  bark  goes  to  work  and  makes  a  layer  of  wood  out  of  the  sap 
that  is  in  it.  This  work  is  done  in  the  warm  weather.  In  the 
winter  there  is  no  wood  made.     The  tree  is  asleep  then. 

It  is  what  the  bark  does  that  makes  the  tree  larger  every  year. 
A  new  layer  of  wood  is  formed  by  it  all  up  the  trunk,  and  along 
out  to  the  end  of  all  the  branches. 

The  different  layers  of  wood  made  in  the  different  years  are 
often  very  distinct  from  each  other.  You  can  see  them  in  a  log 
that  has  been  cut  or  sawn  across.  Sometimes  they  are  so  dis- 
tinct that  you  can  count  them,  and  so  tell 
just  how  many  years  old  the  tree  is.  Here 
is  a  representation  of  the  sawn  end  of  the 
trunk  of  a  tree.  You  see  that  the  rings  of 
the  wood  are  very  plain. 

The  wood  part  of  the  trunk  and  branches 
is  full  of  small  pipes.  It  is  through  these 
pipes  that  the  sap  goes  up  from  the  roots 
and  gets  to  the  leaves.  It  is  in  this  way  that  it  goes  to  the  very 
ends  of  the  topmost  boughs  of  the  tallest  trees.  This  is  very 
wonderful.     How  the  sap  is  made  to  go  up  such  a  great  distance 


106  THE    WOOD    IN    TREES   AND    SHRUBS. 

Sap-pipes  numerous.  Heart-wood.  Pith. 

through  these  pipes  in  the  wood  we  do  not  know.  There  is  only 
one  way  that  man  can  make  water  go  so  high  through  pipes.  He 
can  do  it  by  a  forcing-pump.  But  we  can  see  nothing  like  forcing- 
pumps  in  the  trees.  We  find  nothing  but  these  pipes  going  from 
the  roots  up  to  the  leaves.  And  the  sap  is  flowing  up  through 
them  very  quietly  all  the  time. 

In  a  large  tree  there  is  a  multitude  of  these  pipes  in  the  wood. 
And  when  you  look  at  the  monstrous  trunk,  think  what  a  quantity 
of  sap  there  is  going  up  through  it  all  the  time  to  keep  all  those 
leaves  fresh  and  green.  If  you  could  see  it  all  in  one  pipe  it 
would  be  quite  a  stream. 

If  you  look  at  the  end  of  a  log  you  will  see  that  there  are  two 
kinds  of  wood.  The  wood  in  the  centre  is  different  from  that 
which  is  around  it.  It  is  called  the  heart-wood.  The  pipes  in 
it  are  stopped  up,  and  no  sap  can  go  up  through  it.  The  pipes 
for  the  sap  are  clear  only  in  the  newest  part  of  the  wood. 

The  use  of  the  pith  of  trees  and  plants  we  do  not  understand. 
The  pith  is  very  small  in  trees,  but  it  is  quite  large  in  some  plants 
and  shrubs.  All  boys  know  that  it  is  very  large  in  the  elder.  It 
is  also  large  in  the  stalks  of  corn,  and  of  the  sugar-cane. 

Questions. — How  is  the  wood  in  a  tree  made  ?  What  is  said  of  the  different  lay- 
ers of  Avood  ?  What  is  said  of  the  small  pipes  in  the  wood  ?  Do  we  know  how  the 
sap  is  made  to  go  up  in  them  ?  "What  is  said  of  the  quantity  of  sap  that  goes  up  in 
the  trunk  of  a  large  tree  ?  "What  is  said  of  the  two  kinds  of  wood  that  you  see  in 
looking  at  the  end  of  a  log  ?    What  do  we  know  ahont  the  pith  of  trees  and  plants  ? 


WHAT    IS   MADE   FROM   SAP.  107 


The  great  difference  in  things  made  from  sap 


CHAPTER  XXIX. 

WHAT    IS   MADE   FROM   SAP. 

Every  thing  that  you  see  in  a  tree  or  a  plant  is  made  from  the 
sap.  The  bark,  the  wood,  the  leaves,  the  flowers,  the  fruit,  are 
all  made  from  it.  Even  the  root  that  sucks  up  the  sap  from  the 
ground  is  made  out  of  the  sap  itself. 

It  is  strange  that  so  many  different  things  can  be  made  out  of 
the  same  thing.  It  is  strange  that  a  rough  bark  and  hard  wood 
can  be  made  out  of  the  same  thing  with  the  beautiful  flower  and 
the  delicious  fruit.  Look  at  an  apple-blossom,  and  then  look  at 
the  bark  of  the  tree,  and  think  of  them  as  being  made  out  of  the 
same  sap.  You  can  hardly  believe  that  it  is  so.  How  strange 
it  is  to  think  of  the  sharp  thorns  on  a  rose-bush  as  being  made 
out  of  the  same  sap  that  makes  the  soft,  and  smooth,  and  beauti- 
ful leaves  of  the  roses ! 

If  any  man  should  tell  you  that  he  could  make  a  brick  and  a 
piece  of  cloth,  with  beautifully  colored  figures  on  it,  out  of  the 
same  thing,  you  would  say  he  was  crazy.  But  there  is  not  as 
much  difference  between  the  brick  and  the  cloth  as  there  is  be- 
tween rude  bark  and  a  flower  made  from  the  same  sap.  The 
Creator  does,  in  the  most  common  plants  and  trees,  what  man 
can  not  equal  in  any  way. 

There  are  some  things  made  out  of  sap  that  I  have  said  nothing 
about  as  yet.     There  are  many  bitter,  and  sweet,  and  sour  things 


108  WHAT    IS   MADE   FROM   SAP. 

The  sugar-cane.  How  the  sugar  is  obtained  from  it. 

made  out  of  sap.  Sometimes  sweet  and  bitter  things  are  made 
together  at  the  same  time  out  of  the  same  sap.  You  see  this  in 
the  orange.  Out  of  the  same  sap  that  comes  to  the  orange  through 
the  stem  are  made  the  sweet  juice  and  the  sharp  and  bitter  peel. 

Almost  all  our  sugar  comes  from  the  sugar-cane.  This  is 
shaped  like  the  stalks  of  corn.  The  sugar  is  made  from  the  sap 
that  comes  up  in  the  pipes  of  the  cane  from  the  ground.  The 
cane,  then,  is  really  a  sugar-factory.  Man  does  not  make  the 
sugar,  but  it  is  made  for  him  in  the  cane.  It  is  in  the  juice  of 
the  cane.  This  juice  is  mostly  sugar  and  water.  In  making 
sugar,  as  it  is  called,  the  sugar  is  not  made.  It  is  only  separated 
from  the  water  and  other  things  with  which  it  is  mixed  in  the 
cane. 

The  sugar  is  made  from  the  cane  in  this  way.  The  cane  is 
cut  into  pieces,  and  these  are  put  into  a  mill  where  they  are 
pressed  between  iron  rollers.  The  juice  squeezed  out  in  the  mill 
runs  off  into  a  large  reservoir  or  tub  in  the  boiling-house.  It  is 
now  put  into  boilers  and  boiled  down.  In  this  boiling  the  water 
goes  off  in  steam,  but  the  sugar  remains.  When  it  is  boiled  down 
to  a  sirup  it  is  put  into  very  large  wooden  trays  called  coolers. 
Here  the  sirup  becomes  sugar,  because  the  rest  of  the  water  goes 
off  in  the  air. 

The  way  in  which  sugar  is  made  perfectly  white,  it  is  said,  was 
discovered  in  a  curious  way.  A  hen  that  had  gone  through  a 
clay  mud-puddle  went  with  her  muddy  feet  into  a  sugar-house. 
She  left  her  tracks  on  a  pile  of  sugar.  It  was  observed  by  some 
one  that  wherever  her  tracks  were  the  sus;ar  was  whitened.     This 


WHAT    IS   MADE    FROM   SAP.  109 

How  a  discovery  was  made  about  whitening  sugar. 

led  to  some  experiments.  The  result  was,  that  wet  clay  came  to 
be  used  in  refining  sugar.  It  is  used  in  this  way.  The  sugar  is 
put  into  earthen  jars  shaped  as  you  see  the  sugar-loaves 
are.  The  large  ends  are  upward.  The  small  ends  have 
a  hole  in  them.  Here  is  a  picture  of  one  of  these  jars. 
The  clay  is  put  on  the  top  of  the  sugar  in  the  large  end 
of  the  jar,  and  it  is  kept  wet.  The  moisture  goes  down 
through  the  sugar,  and  drops  from  the  hole  in  the  small 
end  of  the  jar.     This  makes  the  sugar  perfectly  white. 

This  discovery  shows  how  much  a  little  looking  and  thinking 
together  will  do.  What  the  hen  did  was  a  small  thing.  One 
would  hardly  suppose  that  any  thing  could  be  learned  from  a 
hen's  tracks.  Most  people  would  have  scraped  off  the  mud  from 
the  pile  of  sugar,  and  thought  nothing  more  of  it.  But  the  man 
who  saw  the  tracks  was  in  the  habit  of  thinking  about  what  he 
saw.  And  so  he  discovered  in  that  hen's  tracks  a  very  useful 
fact.  If  you  always  think  about  what  you  see  you  may  some 
time  be  a  discoverer  too.  At  any  rate,  that  is  the  way  to  learn. 
And  it  is  to  help  you  in  learning  to  think  about  what  you  see 
that  I  have  written  this  book. 

Questions. — What  things  are  made  out  of  sap  ?  Mention  some  things  very  dif- 
ferent from  each  other  that  are  made  out  of  the  same  sap.  Give  the  comparison 
about  brick  and  cloth.  What  is  said  about  the  orange?  What  about  the  sugar- 
cane ?  How  is  sugar  made  from  the  sugar-cane  ?  Of  what  use  is  the  boiling  ? 
Tell  how  one  way  of  purifying  sugar  was  discovered.  What  does  this  discovery 
show  ? 


110  MORE    ABOUT    WHAT    IS    MADE    FROM   SAP. 


Maple-sugar.  The  sugar-cane.  Some  plants  sugar- factories. 


CHAPTER  XXX. 

MORE   ABOUT   WHAT    IS   MADE   FROM   SAP. 

You  have  eaten  maple-sugar.  This  comes  from  a  tree  called 
the  sugar-maple.  The  sugar  is  in  the  sap,  just  as  it  is  in  the 
case  of  the  sugar-cane.  The  sap  is  obtained  early  in  the  spring 
by  tapping  the  trees,  and  then  it  is  boiled  down,  as  it  is  called. 
In  this  boiling  the  water  goes  off  in  steam  and  leaves  the  sugar 
behind.  The  sugar-maple,  then,  is  a  sugar-factory  as  well  as  the 
sugar-cane. 

There  are  many  roots  in  which  there  is  sugar.  Sugar  has  often 
been  obtained  from  a  kind  of  beet  called  the  sugar-beet.  There 
is  sugar  in  many  fruits,  making  them  sweet  to  the  taste. 

Now  where  does  the  sugar  in  the  sugar-cane,  the  maple,  the 
beet,  etc.,  come  from  ?  The  sap  in  which  the  sugar  is  comes  up 
from  the  roots.  You  will  say,  then,  that  the  little  mouths  in  the 
roots  suck  up  sugar  from  the  ground.  But  there  is  no  sugar 
in  the  ground.  No  one  ever  found  any  there.  Take  up  a  hand- 
ful of  earth,  smell  of  it,  and  taste  of  it.  There  is  no  sweetness 
in  it. 

Though  there  is  no  sugar  in  the  ground,  what  the  sugar  is 
made  out  of  is  there.  This  the  little  mouths  in  the  root  drink 
up,  and  it  is  made  into  sugar  in  the  plant.  You  see,  then,  how 
true  it  is  that  the  plant  is  a  sugar-factory. 

Now  do  you  think  that  any  man  could  in  any  way  make  sugar 


MORE   ABOUT   WHAT   IS   MADE   FEOM   SAP.  Ill 

Plants  make  starch,  medicines,  gums,  and  perfumes. 

from  the  earth  under  his  feet  ?     He  can  no  more  do  it  than  he 
can  make  a  flower  or  a  leaf. 

There  are  a  great  many  other  things  made  by  plants  out  of 
v.'hat  they  suck  up  from  the  earth.     I  will  mention  some  of  them. 

Some  plants  are  starch-factories.  They  make  the  starch  from 
the  sap  that  comes  up  from  thejroot,  just  as  the  sugar  is  made. 
There  is  starch  in  every  kind  of  grain,  in  potatoes,  and  in  many 
other  roots. 

Some  plants  are  medicine-factories.  Camphor  is  obtained  from 
the  bark  and  wood  of  a  tree.  Opium  is  found  in  the  different 
kinds  of  poppies.  There  are  various  bitter  medicines  that  are 
found  in  different  plants.  Castor-oil  is  obtained  from  the  seeds 
of  a  large  plant.  These,  and  various  other  medicines,  are  made 
from  sap. 

Some  plants  are  gum-factories.  You  have  sometimes  seen  gum 
on  the  bark  of  peach-trees  and  cherry-trees,  when  the  bark  has 
been  wounded  in  some  way.  Now  there  are  some  kinds  of  trees 
in  which  there  is  a  great  deal  of  gum.  The  India  rubber  is  a 
gum  that  is  obtained  from  some  kinds  of  trees  in  warm  climates. 
When  the  bark  of  these  trees  is  wounded  this  gum  oozes  out.  It 
is  collected  as  it  flows.  It  is  dried  in  smoke,  and  this  gives  it 
its  dark  appearance. 

Many  plants  arc  perfume-factories,  as  I  told  you  in  Chapter 
Y.  The  perfumes  are  made  most  often  in  the  flowers,  but  they 
are  sometimes  made  in  the  leaves  and  other  parts.  You  know 
how  fragrant  the  leaves  of  the  geranium  are.  Even  wood  is  some- 
times fragrant.     The  sandal-wood  is  very  much  so. 


112  MORE    ABOUT   WHAT    IS    MADE    FROM    SAP. 


The  great  variety  of  things  made  from  sap. 


Some  plants  are  color-makers.  They  not  only  make  colors  for 
their  own  use — that  is,  to  color  their  flowers — but  they  make  them 
for  us  to  use.  Many  of  our  dyes  with  which  we  color  cloths  come 
from  plants.  They  are  made  in  the  plants  from  the  sap  that 
comes  up  from  the  ground.  It  seems  strange  that  the  blue  indigo 
should  be  made  out  of  what  a  plant  drinks  up  from  the  brown, 
dull  earth.     But  so  it  is. 

Now  just  think  over  the  various  things  that  are  made  out  of 
the  sap  in  plants.  There  are  wood,  bark,  leaves,  flowers,  fruits, 
thorns,  perfumes,  colorings,  sugar,  starch,  gum,  various  medicines, 
etc.  And  then  there  are  many  other  things  that  I  have  not  men- 
tioned. How  strange  it  is  that  so  many  and  such  different  things 
can  be  made  from  what  the  plants  suck  up  out  of  the  earth !  As 
you  look  at  the  ground  under  your  feet,  you  can  hardly  believe 
that  so  much  can  be  got  out  of  it.  It  is  the  busy  little  mouths 
in  the  roots  that  get  from  it  what  is  needed  to  make  all  these  dif- 
ferent things. 

Questions. — What  is  said  of  the  sugar-maple  ?  What  is  said  of  sugar  in  some 
roots  and  fruits  ?  As  there  is  no  sugar  in  the  ground,  how  does  it  get  into  plants  ? 
Can  any  body  make  sugar  from  earth  ?  What  plants  are  starch-factories  ?  Men- 
tion some  medicines  made  in  plants.  What  is  said  about  plants  that  are  gum- 
makers  ?  What  is  said  about  perfumes  being  made  in  plants  ?  What  about  colors? 
"What  is  said  about  indigo  ?  Mention  now  all  the  things  that  you  can  think  of  that 
are  made  out  of  the  sap  in  plants. 


CIRCULATION    OF   THE   SAP.  113 


The  difference  between  the  sap  that  goes  up  and  that  which  comes  down. 


CHAPTER  XXXI. 

CIRCULATION   OF   THE    SAP. 

I  HAVE  told  you  that  the  sap  goes  up  in  a  plant  or  a  tree  in 
certain  pipes.  Now  when  it  gets  to  the  leaves  it  turns  about  and 
goes  back  again  down  toward  the  ground  by  some  other  pipes. 

So  there  is  a  set  of  pipes  for  the  sap  to  go  up,  and  a  set  of 
pipes  for  it  to  go  down.  In  a  tree,  the  pipes  for  it  to  go  up  are 
in  the  wood.  Now  where  do  you  think  the  pipes  are  for  it  to  go 
down  ?  They  are  in  the  live  part  of  the  bark.  The  sap  is  all 
the  time  going  up  to  the  leaves  in  the  one  set  of  pipes,  and  com- 
ing down  in  the  other  set.  And  this  is  what  we  call  the  circula- 
tion of  the  sap. 

The  sap  that  goes  up  has  a  great  deal  of  water  in  it.  Much 
of  this  water  is  got  rid  of  when  the  sap  comes  to  the  leaves.  You 
remember  that  I  told  you,  in  the  chapter  on  leaves,- 4hat  water  is 
let  off  into  the  air  from  their  pores.  For  this  reason  the  sap  that 
comes  down  from  the  leaves  has  much  less  water  in  it  than  the 
sap  that  goes  up. 

The  sap  that  goes  up  is  not  perfect  sap.  It  has  to  make  a 
visit  to  the  leaves  and  get  an  airing  there  before  it  can  be  of 
much  use.  After  it  is  aired  it  goes  to  all  parts  of  the  plant,  down 
to  the  very  roots. 

It  is  this  aired  sap  from  which  generally  every  part  of  the  plant 
grows,  or  is  made.  You  remember  that  I  told  you  in  the  last 
i  H 


114  CIRCULATION   OF   THE   SAP. 

The  airing  of  the  sap.  The  sugar  made  from  the  sugar-maple. 

chapter  that  in  trees  the  inner  bark  makes  a  new  layer  of  wood 
every  year.  Now  the  bark  makes  the  wood  out  of  some  of  this 
aired  sap  as  it  goes  down  in  the  pipes  of  the  bark. 

You  remember  that  I  told  you  in  the  chapter  on  leaves,  that 
they  have  much  to  do  with  the  growth  of  a  plant.  You  can  now 
see  why  this  is  so.  The  sap  has  to  go  up  to  the  leaves  to  be 
made  good  sap.  Just  what  the  air  does  to  it  there  you  are  not 
yet  old  enough  to  understand.  But  after  a  little  time  you  will 
be  able  to  understand  this,  and  then  you  will  see  that  leaves  are 
very  properly  called  the  lungs  of  plants,  and  that  they  breathe 
with  them  as  we  do  with  our  lungs,  though  in  a  different  manner. 

I  have  said  that  the  sap  that  goes  up  is  not  of  much  use,  and 
that  every  thing  in  the  plant  is  made  out  of  the  sap  that  goes 
down.  This  is  not  always  so.  In  the  sugar-maple  it  is  the  sap 
that  goes  up  in  the  early  spring  that  has  the  sugar  in  it.  The 
sugar-gatherers  tap  the  trees  before  the  leaves  are  put  forth.  The 
leaves,  then,  have  nothing  to  do  with  making  the  sugar.  How  it 
is  made  we  can  not  understand.  We  suppose  that  it  is  done  in 
the  root,  where  the  mouths  are  that  drink  up  the  sap  from  the 
earth.  But  though  we  do  not  know  how  it  is,  in  some  way  every 
sugar-maple  as  soon  as  it  begins  to  be  warmed  by  the  air  of  spring 
becomes  at  once  a  sugar-factory. 

Though  most  of  our  sugar  comes  from  the  sugar-cane  of  south- 
em  climates,  a  great  deal  is  made  from  the  sap  of  the  sugar-maple 
in  some  parts  of  the  northern  and  western  states  in  this  country. 
A  very  busy  time  they  have  in  some  places  in  the  early  spring  in 
collecting  the  sap  and  in  boiling  it  down.     The  sirup  is  often  sold 


CIRCULATION   OF   THE  SAP.  115 

The  sap  always  in  motion  except  in  winter. 

as  maple-sugar  molasses.  But  more  often  it  is  made  into  sugar ; 
and  great  quantities  of  it  are  sold  every  year.  In  some  places 
where  it  is  made  many  of  the  people  use  no  other  sugar. 

The  sap  is  all  the  time  in  motion  in  the  trees  and  plants  in  all 
the  warmer  months  of  the  year.  It  is  always  going  up  and  com- 
ing down.  It  does  so  till  the  leaves  fall  and  the  cold  of  winter 
comes.  Then  all  this  motion  stops.  And  through  the  winter  the 
sap  is  almost  as  still  as  if  the  trees  and  shrubs  were  dead.  Then 
when  the  spring  comes,  the  mouths  in  the  roots  begin  again  to 
suck  up  sap  from  the  ground,  and  it  runs  up  and  down  in  the 
little  pipes  as  it  did  the  year  before. 

As  you  look  at  all  the  trees  and  plants  about  you,  think  how 
much  sap  there  is  running  up  and  down  in  their  pipes.  Look 
at  a  very  large  tree,  and  think  of  this.  In  multitudes  of  pipes  in 
that  huge  trunk  the  sap  goes  up  to  the  very  end  of  all  the  branch- 
es to  the  leaves,  and  then  it  comes  down  in  other  pipes.  How 
wonderful  this  is,  and  yet  how  few  there  are  that  ever  think 
about  it ! 

Questions. — Where  are  the  pipes  in  which  the  sap  goes  up  in  a  tree  ?  Where  are 
the  pipes  in  which  it  comes  down  ?  What  is  said  about  the  water  in  the  sap  ? 
What  becomes  of  a  part  of  this  water?  Why  is  it  necessary  for  the  sap  to  go  up  to 
the  leaves  ?  Are  things  made  out  of  the  sap  that  goes  up,  or  that  which  comes 
down  ?  How  is  it  with  the  sugar  in  the  maple  ?  Where  is  its  sugar  made  ?  Is 
the  sap  always  in  motion  ? 


116       THE  SLEEP  AND  THE  DEATH  OF  PLANTS. 


Most  plants  die  in  the  fall.  How  trees  sleep  in  the  winter. 


CHAPTER  XXXII. 

THE   SLEEP   AND   THE   DEATH   OF   PLANTS. 

When  the  cold  weather  comes  some  plants  die,  and  some  go 
to  sleep  for  the  winter. 

Some  plants  always  die  in  the  fall.  Corn  dies ;  so  does  the 
bean-vine.  And  .so  do  many  other  plants.  In  order  to  have  such 
plants  another  year,  we  keep  some  of  their  seeds  to  put  into  the 
ground  in  the  spring. 

But  some  plants  sleep  in  the  winter.  Look  at  a  tree.  Its 
branches  are  all  bare.  It  seems  as  if  it  had  no  life  in  it.  But 
there  is  life  there,  and  it  will  show  itself  next  spring.  Its  life  is 
asleep,  just  as  I  told  you  it  is  in  the  seed  before  it  is  put  into  the 
ground.  Its  sap  is  all  still  in  the  pipes.  The  mouths  in  the 
roots  have  stopped  their  busy  work.  The  buds  all  over  the  tree 
are  asleep  in  their  "  winter-cradles."  The  wind  rocks  them  back 
and  forth,  but  never  wakes  them  up. 

How  much  life  there  is  asleep  in  that  tree !  The  buds  are  all 
there  which  are  to  make  all  that  you  will  see  on  it  the  next  sum- 
mer. They  are  covered  up  snugly  from  the  cold  in  their  winter 
coats.  The  little  things  are  very  still,  but  they  are  alive.  They 
only  want  a  warm  sun  to  make  them  show  it.  As  soon  in  the 
spring  as  they  feel  the  warmth  through  their  coats,  they  begin  to 
swell,  as  I  have  told  you  in  another  chapter,  and  soon  open  their 
coats  and  go  to  work  to  make  leaves,  and  flowers,  and  fruits.     A 


THE  SLEEP  AND  THE  DEATH  OF  PLANTS.       117 

Life  asleep  in  roots.  Decay  of  leaves  and  plants. 

great  work  they  do  after  their  long  winter  sleep.  Look  up  into 
a  tree  in  summer  and  see  how  these  leaf-buds  have  filled  every 
branch  with  leaves.  You  can  hardly  believe  that  it  is  the  same 
tree  that  you  saw  so  bare  in  the  winter. 

Some  plants  die  down  to  the  ground,  and  their  roots  live 
through  the  winter.  You  know  that  this  is  the  way  with  tulips 
and  daffodils.  They  come  up  in  the  spring  from  the  roots  that 
have  been  in  the  ground  all  the  winter.  So,  too,  do  the  beautiful 
crocuses,  that  peep  up  so  early  in  spring  that  they  often  get  cov- 
ered with  snow.  The  roots  of  grass,  too,  live  in  the  earth  through 
the  winter. 

The  life  in  these  roots  is  asleep  through  the  winter,  just  as  it  is  in 
the  trees  and  bushes.  Their  little  mouths  do  not  drink  up  any  sap. 
How  much  life  there  is  asleep  in  the  winter  covered  up  in  the  earth ! 

What  do  you  think  becomes  of  all  the  leaves  that  fall,  and  of 
all  the  plants  that  die  in  the  autumn  ?  They  are  not  lost.  They 
decay  and  become  a  part  of  the  earth.  A  great  deal  of  the  ground 
under  your  feet  was  once  in  the  shape  of  stalks,  and  leaves,  and 
flowers.  And  now  the  roots  suck  up  from  it  sap  to  be  made  into 
the  same  shapes  again.  So  you  see  that  the  dead  plants  and 
leaves  of  one  year  are  used  in  making  the  plants  and  leaves  of  the 
years  that  come  after. 

Questions. — What  is  said  of  plants  that  die  in  the  fall  ?  Tell  how  it  is  with  a  tree 
in  the  winter.  What  does  the  warm  weather  do  to  its  buds  in  the  spring  ?  Men- 
tion some  plants  that  die  down  to  the  ground  in  the  fall,  but  whose  roots  live 
through  the  winter.  What  is  said  of  the  life  in  these  roots  ?  What  effect  does  the 
spring  have  on  them  ?  What  becomes  of  all  the  leaves  and  plants  that  die  in  the 
fall? 


118  CONCLUSION. 


Knowledge  of  nature  increases  our  enjoyment  of  it. 


CHAPTER  XXXIII. 

CONCLUSION. 

So  I  have  told  you  in  this  book  many  things  about  trees  and 
plants.  And  I  suppose  that  you  will  look  at  them  with  more 
pleasure  now  than  you  did  before  you  knew  so  much  about  them. 
Almost  every  body  says  when  looking  at  a  handsome  plant  or 
tree,  how  beautiful  it  is  !  But  you  will  say  something  more  than 
this.  You  will  say  how  beautiful  and  how  wonderful  too !  You 
think  of  the  sap  going  up  and  down  in  the  pipes,  of  the  busy 
mouths  in  the  roots  drinking  it  up  from  the  ground,  of  the  many 
different  things  that  are  made  from  the  sap,  of  the  beautiful  leaves 
acting  as  the  lungs  of  the  plant,  and  of  the  leaf-buds  from  which 
the  leaves  are  made.  And  because  you  know  something  about 
all  these  things,  plants  and  trees  look  more  beautiful  to  you  than 
they  ever  did  before. 

You  have  always  admired  the  weeping-willow  with  its  long 
branches  hanging  almost  to  the  ground.  But  you  admire  it  much 
more  now,  because  you  think  how  wonderful  it  is  that  the  sap 
circulates  back  and  forth  in  the  trailing  branches.  Follow  it  as  I 
have  told  you  that  it  goes,  and  see  how  wonderful  the  circulation 
of  the  sap  is  in  this  tree.  It  goes  from  the  roots  up  through  the 
trunk,  and  down  the  trailing  branches  to  the  very  tips  of  the 
leaves ;  and  then  it  mounts  up  again  through  other  pipes  in  the 
branches  to  the  trunk,  that  it  may  go  down  again  to  the  roots. 


CONCLUSION.  119 


Flowers  and  leaves. 


As  you  think  of  all  this,  do  not  the  beautiful  branches,  as  they 
swing  back  and  forth  in  the  wind,  look  more  beautiful  than  ever  ? 

You  have  always  loved  to  look  at  flowers  with  their  various 
colors.  But  now  you  love  them  more  than  ever,  because  you 
know  something  about  how  they  grow,  and  what  their  colors  and 
perfumes  are  made  from,  and  many  other  interesting  facts  about 
them.  Even  fruits  will,  I  think,  taste  better  to  you,  for  what  you 
have  learned  about  them  in  this  book. 

Leaves  are  such  common  things  that  most  people  do  not  know 
how  beautiful  they  are.  From  what  I  have  told  you  about  them, 
I  think  you  will  always  be  ready  to  examine  them,  and  see  what 
a  variety  of  beauty  there  is  in  the  leaves  of  different  trees  and 
plants.  And  when  you  think  what  is  done  in  the  leaves,  and 
how  the  sap  comes  continually  to  them  to  be  aired,  you  admire 
them  more  than  they  do  who  think  of  them  merely  as  pretty  green 
things. 

Think  of  a  leaf  as  made,  for  growing  is  making.  No  one  can 
make  leaves  but  God.  But  suppose  that  a  man  could  make  leaves 
and  put  them  on  to  a  tree.  It  would  take  him  his  whole  life  to 
cover  a  tree  of  any  size  with  leaves.  But  God,  as  I  have  told 
you,  makes  the  leaves  out  of  sap  on  all  the  plants  and  trees.  He 
sends  to  them  the  warm  breezes  of  spring,  and  sets  the  sap  run- 
ning in  the  pipes,  and  then  the  buds  come  out,  and  from  them  are 
formed  the  leaves.  What  a  busy  workshop,  as  you  may  say,  is 
every  plant  and  tree  in  the  spring  when  all  the  leaves  are  making ! 

I  have  told  you  about  the  wonderful  change  that  we  see  in 
plants  and  trees  year  by  year.     What  multitudes  of  leaves  and 


120  CONCLUSION. 


Changes  in  winter  and  spring.  "  Seed-time  and  harvest  shall  not  cease." 

flowers  fall  to  the  ground  every  year  and  decay  !  What  a  waste, 
as  it  seems,  of  beautiful  things !  But  are  they  really  wasted  ? 
Oh  no !  God,  as  I  have  told  you,  can  make  again  out  of  these 
decayed  leaves  and  flowers  other  leaves  and  flowers  just  as  beau- 
tiful as  these  once  were. 

How  wonderful  this  is  !  Look  out  in  summer,  and  see  on  trees, 
and  shrubs,  and  plants,  flowers  of  every  color  mingled  with  the 
green  leaves.  What  a  world  of  varied  beauty  you  behold !  You 
can  not  believe  that  all  this  will  be  soon  gone.  But  wait  a  little 
and  there  are  no  leaves  nor  flowers.  All  is  bare  and  dreary.  The 
leaves  and  flowers  have  fallen  in  all  their  beauty,  and  the  snow 
covers  them  as  with  a  winding-sheet. 

Is  it  possible  that  all  this  beauty  that  we  have  seen  thus  buried 
can  be  revived  again  ?  Will  the  green  grass  again  appear  ?  Will 
these  bare  trees  and  shrubs  again  be  covered  with  leaves  and 
blossoms,  and  will  the  flowers  again  spring  up  ?  Oh  yes  !  We 
have  seen  God  do  all  this  year  after  year,  with  the  sunshine,  and 
the  rain,  and  the  dew  of  spring ;  and  he  will  do  it  again,  for  he 
has  said  that  "  seed-time  and  harvest  shall  not  cease." 

Questions. — "With  what  thoughts  and  feelings  will  what  you  have  learned  in  this 
book  make  you  look  at  plants  and  trees  ?  What  is  said  about  the  weeping-willow  ? 
What  about  flowers  and  fruits  ?  What  about  leaves  ?  What  is  said  about  leaves 
being  made  ?  What  is  said  of  the  change  that  you  see  every  year  in  plants  and 
trees  ?  Tell  about  the  change  from  summer  to  winter,  and  then  from  winter  to 
summer. 


THE     END. 


